Well, this is interesting! A hard drive containing an unencrypted master of this movie – Fortitude – was stolen from Netflix’s Los Angeles office. An associate producer left the movie on a hard drive in the Netflix office in advance of a potential purchase screening.
Nine days later, a Netflix executive emailed the filmmakers with the subject line “Stolen PCP” to report multiple hard drives missing from office desks, including theirs. The filmmakers argue the stolen unsecured master copy ruins distribution deals, awards campaigns, and market value, so therefore, producer Simon Afram sued Netflix for $105 million, accusing the company of being responsible for the theft.
Netflix has disputed this, saying that the drive failed to use industry-standard encryption protection.
The case is ongoing, scuppering any chance of a deal with Netflix. In the absence of any deal, the producers have gone ahead and released a trailer anyway.
Fortitude is based on an incredible true story and follows the fearless and unpredictable spy-soldiers Dudley Clarke (Ed Skrein) and Thomas Argyll ‘Tar’ Robertson (Matthew Goode), as they devise the biggest deception mission ever mounted.
With the support of Winston Churchill (Michael Sheen), Ian Fleming (Art Malik), and an extraordinary network of double agents they create a spectacular master plan using a fictitious army, fake tanks, aircraft and ships, actors and false radio messages to fool Hitler’s Nazi Army in the build-up to D-Day. The operation decisively changed the course of World War II.
Also in on the shenanigans are Dusko Popov (Nicolas Cage), the real-life Serbian spy who partly inspired the James Bond novels; Juan Pujol (Jordi Mollà), a Spanish chicken farmer; and Nancy Armstrong (Alice Eve), a top British Intelligence agent.
The film was written by Afram, and is directed by Simon West (Con Air). Wait… what? Where has he been?
Fortitude is now expected to be released in theaters at some stage this year.
