A U.K.-based production company and a filmmaker are suing Netflix for $105 million, alleging the streaming company lost a drive containing a copy of an unreleased espionage movie, which they claim undermined its commercial prospects.

The complaint filed on Wednesday in California district court alleges that the film's associate producer, Daniel Haido, hand-delivered an unencrypted master copy of the film to Netflix so the company could screen it as a potential buyer. Haido verbally instructed the employee to delete the files after the screening, according to the suit.

A little over a week after the screening, Netflix emailed the filmmakers to say the drive had been stolen, the plaintiffs allege.

"Someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week," a Netflix executive wrote in the June 25 email, according to the suit.

The complaint notes the movie, titled "Fortitude," took over seven years to make and cost $45 million. It tells the story of a secret mission called Operation Fortitude during World War II that was orchestrated to mislead the Nazis about the Allied invasion of Europe.

The film stars Nicolas Cage as Dusko Popov, a real-life spy during World War II, as well as Sir Ben Kingsley and Ron Perlman.

The plaintiffs said studios will now be dissuaded from buying the rights to the movie, knowing that a version of it could be released by a third party for free. Marketing the film will also be more difficult, which could undermine negotiations with potential buyers, they allege.

"The film's value depended in significant part on its exclusivity as an unreleased, first-to-market work," the complaint states. "By losing control of the film, Netflix destroyed that exclusivity and materially, if not completely, impaired the film's marketability."

"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," the lawsuit goes on to say.

The plaintiffs said they have now temporarily paused marketing and sales of "Fortitude."

A Netflix spokesperson said the company "disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards." Netflix has offered to monitor piracy sites for unauthorized distribution or sale of the movie.

"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," the spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News.

Source