Netflix Hit With Expanded Lawsuit From ‘Fortitude’ Producer Over Alleged Hard-Drive Theft

The new wrinkle in the fight centers on what the producers say Netflix told the press. Producer, writer and financier Simon Afram and his company Op-Fortitude Limited have amended their lawsuit to add a defamation claim, arguing a Netflix statement to Deadline mischaracterized their legal demands after a hard drive containing the movie Fortitude allegedly went missing.

According to the amended complaint, the filmmakers sent an unencrypted digital cinema package of the World War II espionage thriller to Netflix for a potential acquisition screening. They say they later learned the drive had been stolen, and claim Netflix would not share key details about the incident while it conducted an internal review.

Netflix pushes back

Netflix has denied the new allegations and has previously said it disputes any claim that it bears responsibility for the loss of a film delivered without what it describes as industry-standard safeguards. The company says it takes content security seriously, ran an internal investigation and found no evidence the film has leaked online.

“Have declined to share anything about our ongoing investigation with the law firm representing Simon Afram, given their hostile attempts to extort money from Netflix over this situation — including immediately demanding $165 million for the film rather than work with us in good faith.” — a Netflix spokesperson told Deadline

The film at the center

Directed by Simon West, Fortitude is an upcoming World War II spy thriller inspired by the true story of British double agent Duško Popov, whose exploits are widely believed to have influenced Ian Fleming’s James Bond.

• Nicolas Cage
• Matthew Goode
• Ben Kingsley
• Michael Sheen
• Ron Perlman

The amended complaint adds the defamation claim to the existing suit while Netflix maintains it found no evidence of any Fortitude leak online.