Producer sues Netflix for $105 million over missing Nicolas Cage movie

Producer Simon Afram is suing Netflix for $105 million, claiming a hard drive with his unreleased Nicolas Cage film 'Fortitude' was stolen from Netflix's Hollywood studios.

The unencrypted master copy of 'Fortitude', a World War II drama, was delivered to Netflix in June at its request; nine days later, Netflix emailed that drives were stolen.

Afram invested more than $45 million in 'Fortitude', which took seven years to complete, and was trying to sell the film to Netflix or another distributor.

The lawsuit argues the film's value has been destroyed because distributors are unlikely to buy a movie that could appear on piracy sites.

Netflix disputes the claim, saying it does not own the rights to 'Fortitude' and that the film was delivered without industry-standard safeguards; it says it has investigated and monitored piracy sites.