Nicolas

A producer sued Netflix on Wednesday, alleging the streamer lost an unreleased copy of a new Nicolas Cage movie and seeking damages of at least $105 million.

Producer Simon Afram invested more than $45 million of his own money making “Fortitude,” a film that takes place during World War II and features actors including Cage, Sir Ben Kingsley and Ron Perlman, according to the lawsuit. The movie, described as “Ocean’s Eleven” meets “Inglourious Basterds,” is based on Operation Fortitude, an effort during World War II in which double agents set a trap for Adolf Hitler and his armies. The movie has not yet been released and is seeking buyers.

“Fortitude” had its own mystery last month when the drive that once held the movie went missing.

On June 15, Daniel Haido, an associate producer of “Fortitude,” dropped off an unencrypted copy of the movie for Netflix to view and instructed the staff to delete the files after the screening. Haido also told Netflix to notify him when the drive was ready for pick up, but Netflix was unresponsive to several efforts to pick up the drive, the lawsuit said. On June 25, Netflix notified Haido that the drive had been stolen.

“Unfortunately, someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week,” Sean Berney, a director for original film at Netflix, wrote in a June 25 email, according to the lawsuit. “We’ve been working through this with our security teams to no luck.”

Berney in his email offered to reimburse Afram’s company for the missing drive or create a new digital cinema package, according to the lawsuit.

But Afram in his lawsuit said the damage was much greater than that. He is seeking economic damages of at least $105 million, along with other costs.

“By losing control of the Film, Netflix destroyed that exclusivity and materially, if not completely, impaired the Film’s marketability,” his lawsuit said. “It is not fathomable that a sophisticated buyer would invest tens of millions of dollars to acquire the Film — and tens of millions more to market it — while facing the constant risk that it could appear online to be viewed widely for free at any time.”

Netflix in a statement said it is conducting an investigation and is offering to monitor piracy sites for any unauthorized distribution or sale of the film. The streamer accused Afram’s law firm of “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.”

“Netflix disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards,” the company said in a statement. “While we do not own the rights to ‘Fortitude,’ we take content security seriously and have taken extra measures to support the filmmaker and his team.”

Akerman LLP, one of the firms representing Afram in his lawsuit, declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Johnson & Johnson LLP did not immediately return a request for comment.

Regarding Netflix’s statement, a spokesman for Afram said, “Our lawsuit speaks for itself.”

Renfield, a movie based on characters from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, is airing tonight and fans have praised hailed the film “funny and deliciously entertaining’

A movie perfect for fans of Dracula is heading to the small screen.

American action comedy horror film Renfield was originally released in 2023 and Film4 is showing the film at 9pm on Wednesday (May 20) evening.

Inspired by characters from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula and its 1931 feature film adaptation, the film features Nicholas Hoult as the titular character and co-stars Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Brandon Scott Jones, Adrian Martinez and Nicolas Cage.

The story follows Renfield who, after decades as a grueling servant for Dracula, seeks a new purpose in life. Viewers who have already watch the movie have offered their review online.

One fan penned: “I came for Nicolas Cage and was not disappointed. He played an amazing Dracula in the modern world.” Nicolas Cage was born to play and he appropriately chews up the scenery whenever he is on screen. This movie is a lot of fun thematically and visually.”

A third person said: “Renfield hits all the right notes. The humour is dark, witty and at times profound. The film delivers plenty of gore and bloodshed to satisfy fans of the horror genre.”

A fourth agreed: “Funny, well-crafted, and deliciously entertaining, Renfield isn’t short of bite.”

According to reports, Cage prepared for his role as Dracula by observing the distinctive ways the character was portrayed on screen by Bela Lugosi, Frank Langella, and Gary Oldman.

“What can I bring that will be different?”, he said, “I want it to pop in a unique way. We’ve seen it played well, we’ve seen it play not so well, so what can we do?

“So I’m thinking to really focus on the movement of the character … and that perfect tone of comedy and horror.”

Cage mentioned An American Werewolf in London, Ring and Malignant as inspirations for the role.

The film is Cage’s first live-action film by a major studio since Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

The film’s black-and-white opening scenes recreate the events of Dracula with Cage and Hoult respectively inserted in place of Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye as Count Dracula and Renfield, with Helen Chandler and Edward Van Sloan appearing as Mina Seward and Abraham Van Helsing via archive footage.