We can only imagine the caper started with a huge map spread out on a desk, moved on to men moving stealthily through dark rooms in black tactical gear and ended with triumph when they got what they were after: A Nicolas Cage movie.
But what happened in an office at Netflix isn't a movie scene. It's real life. And it could cost the streaming giant $105 million.
Producer Simon Afram is seeking $105 million in damages from Netflix after he said an unreleased Nicolas Cage movie was stolen from the streaming service's studios.
Here's how it went down: The filmmaker had had delivered an unencrypted master copy of the Second World War drama "Fortitude" to Netflix. It sat in an office, and then disappeared. Netflix said it was stolen.
And now that the Netflix office copy is gone, producers argue that there's no sense in using any other version of the film -- which surely must have copies. They say the film's value has been "destroyed" due to the risk of piracy, making it less attractive to distributors.
How does Netflix feel about that?
"Netflix disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards," a company spokesperson 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. This includes conducting a thorough investigation and offering to monitor known piracy sites for any unauthorized distribution or sale."
They disputes the claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without proper industry-standard safeguards and has taken extra measures to support the filmmaker.
They claim, instead, this is a situation where Afram's attorneys have used hostile attempts to extort money.
But they do concede a copy of the movie was stolen from a Netflix office.
"This is a first for us," wrote Sean Berney, Netflix's head of film acquisitions, in an email to Yahoo News. "Unfortunately, someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week. We've been working through this with out security teams to no luck. Our piracy teams are on high alert with the breach and will monitor."
