Nicolas Cage plays the spy who inspired James Bond in the Fortitude trailer

The Hollywood actor slips into the shoes of Duško Popov, the Serbian spy who is said to have inspired Ian Fleming to create James Bond, in this historical thriller directed by Simon West, which recounts Operation Fortitude of 1944.

Thirty years later Wings of Hell (1997), Nicolas Cage reunites with director Simon West. This time, for a historical thriller in 1944.

The trailer for Fortitude takes us to the heart of espionage during the Second World War and is inspired by an incredible true story: that of the British intelligence agents who orchestrated one of the largest disinformation operations in history to deceive the Nazis before the D-Day landings. Operation Fortitude, led by the Allies, aimed to deceive Nazi Germany about the date and location of the Normandy landings.

In the film, Ed Skrein and Matthew Goode play Dudley Clarke and Thomas Argyll “Tar” Robertson, two British officers behind this gigantic manipulation operation. With the support of Winston Churchill, the writer Ian Fleming – then personal assistant to Rear-Admiral John Godfrey, director of the Naval Intelligence Division – and a vast network of double agents, the British put in place a plan intended to convince the Nazi leaders that the Landings would take place elsewhere than in Normandy.

Among these double agents is Duško Popov, played by Nicolas Cage. A Serbian spy working for the British while infiltrating German networks, Popov is said to have inspired Ian Fleming with certain traits of his famous secret agent, James Bond.

The trailer reveals a succession of tense scenes, between clandestine operations, manipulations and clashes, with a particularly prestigious cast. Alice Eve, Michael Sheen, Ben Kingsley, Jordi Mollà and Art Malik notably complete the cast.

Fortitude also made headlines even before the release of its trailer: a hard drive containing an unencrypted master copy of the film was allegedly stolen from the Netflix offices in Los Angeles. In July, screenwriter Simon Afram filed a $105 million lawsuit against the platform, which he accuses of being responsible for the theft and of having compromised the marketing of the film. Netflix disputes these accusations.

No release date yet.