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Two South Florida police officers claim\u00a0Ben Affleck\u00a0and\u00a0Matt Damon\u2019s\u00a0recent action thriller\u00a0\u201cThe Rip\u201d\u00a0used too many real-life details in its fictionalized narrative, causing harm to the officers\u2019 personal and professional reputations, according to a defamation lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, sergeants in the Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office, filed the lawsuit in Miami federal court earlier this month against\u00a0Artists Equity, a film production company owned by Affleck and Damon. Court filings don\u2019t say how much the officers are suing for, but the civil complaint says they\u2019re seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney fees, as well as a public retraction and correction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rip\u201d features Affleck and Damon as South Florida police officers who find millions of dollars inside a house. Parts of the movie were inspired by a real 2016 case, where police found over $21 million linked to a suspected marijuana trafficker in a Miami Lakes home.<\/p>\n
Affleck and Damon have said while promoting the film that the story is loosely based on accounts from Miami-Dade Police Capt. Chris Casiano, who served as a technical advisor on the film. Damon told The Associated Press during a January interview that he and Affleck spent time with Casiano and other narcotics officers in preparation for the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really wanted to kind of understand what those dynamics were like,\u201d Damon said. \u201cI mean, these units are very tight because they\u2019re really putting their lives in each other\u2019s hands, and they\u2019re doing something that\u2019s very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
An attorney for Artists Equity declined to comment when reached Monday by the AP. But in a March 19 response to the plaintiffs\u2019 demand letter, Leita Walker, an attorney for Artists Equity, wrote that the film does not purport to tell the true story of that incident or portray real people, which had been stated by a disclaimer in the film\u2019s credits.<\/p>\n
Although Smith and Santana aren\u2019t named in the film and weren\u2019t involved in its production, the lawsuit claims that Santana was serving as the lead detective assigned to the real case, and Smith was the sergeant who supervised the investigative team. The film\u2019s inclusion of real details about the case gives the impression that the characters are based on the plaintiffs, the suit said.<\/p>\n
This, the lawsuit claims, has given friends, family members and colleagues the impression that the plaintiffs committed the criminal acts that appear in the film, which include (SPOILER ALERT) conspiring to steal seized drug money, murdering a supervising officer, communicating with cartel members, committing arson in a residential neighborhood, endangering the lives of civilians, repeatedly violating core law-enforcement protocols and executing a federal agent rather than making an arrest.<\/p>\n
Walker wrote in March that the plaintiffs haven\u2019t even identified which particular character is supposed to be based on Smith or Santana, so even if \u201cThe Rip\u201d was actually about a real-life narcotics team, there\u2019s no way to connect any of the characters to the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rip,\u201d directed by Joe Carnahan, debuted in January on Netflix. It\u2019s currently rated 78% Fresh on\u00a0Rotten Tomatoes.<\/p>\n
_____<\/p>\n
Associated Press video journalist Brooke Lefferts in New York contributed.<\/p>\n
#Florida #cops #sue #Affleck #Damon #movie #real #life<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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