Nicolas Cage movie in row with London council over Nazi swastika imagery
The team behind the upcoming Nicolas Cage film, Operation Fortitude, faced a huge setback after their plan to film at Waltham Forest town hall fell through due to fears over Nazi iconography.
If the shoot were to take place at the London town hall, the building would have been draped in flags bearing the swastika.
The project follows the story of the 1944 operation undertaken by the Allied Forces, in an attempt to mislead Nazi Germany about the nature and timings of D-Day, which took place on June 6th that year.
Originally, Waltham Forest Council agreed to the request under the provisos that the production team would consult nearby residents, in an effort to stress that “Nazi-era flags and symbols were not publicly visible”.
When the production was brought forward a whole month, from October to September, the council deemed that there was not enough time to share the specifics of the situation with locals in the community.
As per The Standard, a spokesperson for the council said: “We were very disappointed when the shoot was abruptly brought forward from October to 15th September, preventing the level of consultation previously discussed, and that letters had been sent to the community by the location team stating explicitly that Nazi symbols would be highly visible during the shoot.”
Therefore, as the change “did not honour” the agreed conditions, and due to the “high level of sensitivity to far-right iconography”, the council refused permission.
Production for the movie was eventually filmed in Greenwich instead.
The upcoming historical spy action-adventure film is directed by Simon West. Alongside Cage, actors Matthew Goode, Alice Eve, Ed Skrein, Ben Kingsley, and Michael Sheen will star.
Principal photography began on September 8th, elsewhere in London.
Cage’s last film, The Surfer, which sees the Wild at Heart star returning to his childhood beach with his son, only to find himself at the heart of an escalating conflict, was released on May 2nd, 2025. Watch the trailer below.
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