UPDATE: The producer of the World War II spy thriller Fortitude has added a claim of defamation to his lawsuit against Netflix over the theft of the hard drive of the upcoming film after it was delivered to the streamer’s headquarters for screening and possible purchase

In the lawsuit, Simon Afram, the producer, writer and financier, and production company Op-Fortitude Limited claim they had an unencrypted digital cinema package of the film delivered to Netflix for a potential purchase, with the instruction to delete the files after screening.

The lawsuit claims that after screening the film around June 16, a Netflix executive informed the film’s producers that the DCP files were stolen, but that the company declined to provide other information.

In the lawsuit filed last week, Afram and Op-Fortitude, claimed, among other things, breach of implied contract. Now they have added defamation to the lawsuit

Their legal team points to Netflix’s statement in response to the initial lawsuit filing, in which a spokesperson stated that they “have declined to share anything about our ongoing investigation with the law firm representing Simon Afram, given their 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.”

The producer’s legal team wrote in the amended lawsuit, “In fact, Mr. Afram and his counsel made no immediate demand for payment for the lost Film. Instead, after being informed by Netflix of the theft on June 25, 2026, the first letter from Plaintiffs’ counsel to Netflix on June 29, 2026, merely asked for information and a meeting with Netflix. It did not demand any specified amount of money.”

They claimed that on June 30, Netflix refused to cooperate with information about the theft, and it was only after that when the producer’s attorney sent a letter on July 1 seeking “$165 million in compensation for the loss of the Film and its exclusive and first-to market status.”

“Rather than addressing the consequences of its own negligence or recklessness, Netflix responded to Mr. Afram’s reasonable requests for information and remediation by accusing him of a serious crime,” per the amended complaint.

A Netflix spokesperson said that they had no comment beyond their initial statement. Netflix also said last week that they dispute “any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards. 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.”