Hollywood megastars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are being sued by Miami police over their latest movie.

Affleck and Damon – whose production company Artists Equity also produced The Rip – play two police officers who uncover corruption within the Miami-Dade Police Department after discovering cartel cash.

But a new lawsuit accuses them of defaming the real people who allegedly inspired the tale.

Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana are officers in the Miami-Dade Sherriff’s Office on which the Netflix movie is based. While they aren’t mentioned by name in the film, they are suing Artists Equity and Affleck and Damon’s LLC production company Falco Productions over the depiction of law enforcement characters in The Rip.

According to documents obtained by Entertainment Weekly, the lawsuit argues that Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) and Detective Sergeant JD Byrne (Affleck) are so heavily associated with Smith and Santana that their portrayal has resulted in “substantial harm to their personal and professional reputations”. The two officers allege the movie and its advertisements “imply misconduct, poor judgment, and unethical behaviour in connection with a real law enforcement operation”.

They have brought claims of defamation, and one for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are being sued by real-life police over their movie The Rip. Photo: Netflix

According to the complaint, The Rip is inspired by a real-life incident in June 2016, when Smith and Santana seized more than $US21 million ($A29 million) in cartel cash that unmasked corruption within the Florida police department.

The two officers argue that its “use of unique, non-generic details of the June 29, 2016, investigation, combined with its Miami-Dade setting and portrayal of a narcotics team, creates a reasonable inference that the officers depicted are plaintiffs”.

The complaint highlights scenes in the movie where characters bend the rules about procedure, including one where Affleck’s character kills a Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

The movie opens with text that says the project was “inspired by true events”. But Smith and Santana’s complaint argues that apart from “the fact that a large seizure occurred, the events portrayed in the film did not happen”.

Their lawyers allege that because of what the officers’ families and colleagues have seen in The Rip, they have said they “must have used seized funds to complete personal property improvements, purchase vehicles and vessels, and afford private schooling for their children”. The lawyers say “viewers are associating the Miami-Dade Police Department and plaintiffs with the corrupt portrayals in The Rip“.

“When you rip something, you’re stealing something. We never stole a dollar,” Santana, who was the lead detective on the 2016 case, told local outlet 7 News Miami.

He said he had previously been praised for his work in the case but since The Rip‘s release in January, he had been mocked by people, “pretty much saying, you know, how many buckets of money did I steal?”.

According to the lawsuit, Smith and Santana wrote to the production companies with their concerns about alleged defamatory details before taking action. They also demanded in December last year that the companies “cease and desist from releasing” The Rip.

But there was apparently no response until after The Rip‘s premiere, when the defendents argued the “concerns are unfounded because the film did not expressly name Sergeant Smith and there was no implication that the plaintiffs engaged in any misconduct in the film”.

Smith and Santana are seeking damages and legal costs, as well as “a public retraction and correction”. They also want “the addition of a prominent disclaimer” to the movie.

The Rip drew more than 41 million viewers in its first three days and remained in Netflix’s No.1 spot for more than three weeks.

Netflix is not named in the legal action.

-with AAP