Nicolas Cage's next World War II thriller was supposed to be heading toward a major distribution deal and a possible awards run. Instead, Fortitude has become the center of a bizarre theft story. Netflix is now facing a $105 million lawsuit after the producers behind the unreleased film accused the streamer of losing an unencrypted copy during a break-in at its Los Angeles office.

With Cage attached and an alleged security failure at the heart of the case, it has quickly become one of Hollywood's biggest legal stories. Here's everything currently known about what happened and what it means for the film.

According to the complaint filed by Op-Fortitude Ltd. and Swiss producer Simon Afram, Netflix requested a copy for an internal screening, and on June 15, an unencrypted drive was delivered to its Hollywood studio. The producers say they told Netflix the drive was unencrypted and asked for it to be deleted after the June 16 screening.

Between June 17 and June 25, the plaintiffs claim Netflix repeatedly ignored requests to arrange a pickup. On June 25, a Netflix executive finally emailed saying, "someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week."

 The lawsuit alleges Netflix downplayed the incident, claiming the drive needed an encryption key despite knowing it did not, and offered to reimburse only the physical drive's cost. The complaint cites test screenings showing an 82% "top-two box" score and estimates the film could have earned at least $112.5 million.

Netflix has pushed back hard, saying it is not responsible for a film delivered without standard safeguards like encryption, and accusing the plaintiffs' legal team of trying to extort it, claiming they initially demanded $165 million rather than negotiate. They have also added that they have monitored the piracy sites and have found no evidence that the film has leaked. The case, which includes claims of conversion and breach of contract, is headed toward a jury trial.

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While all of this is happening around the film, what is Fortitude about?

Fortitude is a spy thriller inspired by the real Allied deception campaign that helped mislead N*** Germany ahead of D-Day. Nicholas Cage, whose Spider-Man has had the most tragic love story of all time, stars as Duško Popov, a real double agent often cited as a partial inspiration for James Bond, in a story pitched as a blend of Ocean's Eleven and Inglourious Basterds. The cast also includes Ben Kingsley, Matthew Goode, Michael Sheen, Ron Perlman, Ed Skrein, Alice Eve, and Jordi Mollà, with Simon West, Cage's Con Air director, behind the camera.

The film reportedly took seven years and roughly $45 million to make, shot on 35mm for an authentic period look. Given that scope, the lawsuit's central claim, that a lost unencrypted master jeopardized years of work, has struck a nerve as a cautionary tale about how unreleased films get handled. 

Whatever the outcome, the case is already shaping up as a wake-up call for the industry, a reminder that even a company as large as Netflix is not immune to basic security lapses, and that unreleased films can carry just as much financial risk sitting on a hard drive as they do at the box office.

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Do you think Fortitude will make it to screens despite the drama? Let us know in the comments!