The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in California federal court by writer and producer Simon Afram and his company, Op-Fortitude, seeks $105 million in damages. Afram alleges the loss has hurt the film's value because potential buyers would have to be told the master copy went missing, creating insurance concerns.
According to the complaint, a hard drive containing the film was delivered to Netflix on June 15 as the company considered acquiring the movie. The drive was later stolen along with several others, and Afram claims Netflix did not inform his team until days afterward.
Fortitude is a World War II drama starring Nicolas Cage, Ben Kingsley, Ron Perlman, Michael Sheen, Matthew Goode, Lukas Haas, and Alice Eve. Afram says the film took seven years to make and cost more than $45 million.
The lawsuit also alleges Netflix knew the hard drive was not encrypted and had been instructed to delete any copied files after reviewing the film.
Netflix denied responsibility, saying the film was delivered without industry-standard security protections. The company said it takes content security seriously, investigated the incident, and offered to monitor piracy websites for any unauthorized distribution.
The plaintiffs have also filed a police report with the Los Angeles Police Department. The case is pending in federal court.
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