The Miami-Dade narcotics officers who seized $22 million stashed in orange buckets in 2016 are suing the production companies of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for defamation, saying the Netflix police thriller “The Rip,” inspired by their high-profile bust, falsely portrayed them as corrupt.

Filed Tuesday in a Florida federal district court, the lawsuit names as defendants Artists Equity, the production company founded by Damon and Affleck, as well as co-producer Falco Pictures, their one-off LLC for the project. Damon and Affleck were co-leads on “The Rip,” as well as co-producers.

The plaintiffs, Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, are seeking unspecified damages for defamation, defamation by implication and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A spokesperson for Netflix, which is not named as a defendant, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.

The police thriller was marketed as “inspired by true events,” but the lawsuit says the movie borrowed heavily from a real June 29, 2016 Miami-Dade narcotics investigation in which officers discovered nearly $22 million in cash hidden in orange buckets behind a false wall inside a Miami Lakes home. The plaintiffs say the film recreated several distinctive details from the case while falsely depicting the officers involved as corrupt and criminal.

Smith and Santana allege that anyone familiar with the case easily connected them to the fictional officers portrayed by Damon and Affleck. The lawsuit claims family members, colleagues and even prosecutors questioned the officers after seeing the film or its trailer, asking “which character they were” and “how many buckets they kept.”

The suit says the actual 2016 seizure — the largest cash seizure in Miami-Dade Police Department history — involved officers lawfully discovering $21,970,411 hidden in orange buckets concealed behind drywall. The complaint states Santana was the lead detective on the case while Smith supervised the operation.

The officers say “The Rip” added fabricated plotlines involving police corruption, theft schemes, cartel dealings and murder. The complaint cites scenes in which officers discuss stealing seized money, lying to suspects, concealing evidence from superiors and communicating directly with cartel members. The suit also alleges the film depicts officers tied to the seizure as being implicated in the murder of a fellow officer and later killing a DEA agent.

The officers say they warned the filmmakers before and after “The Rip” was released, sending a cease-and-desist letter in December 2025 objecting to the trailer and promotional materials. The complaint further alleges that a Miami-Dade officer who consulted on the film later contacted the plaintiffs on behalf of director Joe Carnahan to apologize and offer consulting opportunities on a future project.

Affleck and Damon founded Artists Equity in 2022 with financial backing from RedBird Capital. Affleck serves as chief executive officer while Damon is chief creative officer.

Universal Studios Hollywood’s Fan Fest Nights, an ingenious springtime extension of the after-hours formula utilized by the lucrative Halloween Horror Nights, has returned for its second year. And it has evolved greatly from last year’s debut, emphasizing more complex interactivity and the role of anime franchises in the event.

For those unaccustomed to Fan Fest Nights, it began last year, a hard-ticket after-hours event where guests are encouraged to express their fandom – whatever it is! – by taking part in experiences inspired by their favorite properties and dressing up in outfits inspired by their favorite characters. (I walked into the park behind a couple dressed as characters from Cartoon Network’s “Over the Garden Wall,” even though the limited series was not represented at the event.)

While it is loosely modeled on Horror Nights, the first year of the event offered a nifty mixture of experiences – there were a couple of walkthrough experiences that mirrored the sensation of walking through an HHN “house,” built around “Star Trek” and Dungeons & Dragons, but there was also a 3D movie based on a popular anime that was imported from Universal Studios’ Osaka park and a scavenger hunt in Super Nintendo Land, based around Mario’s dinosaur friend Yoshi.

But the centerpiece – indeed, the true standout – from the first year had you travel to the lower lot and ramble around Courthouse Square, a famous shooting location that has been featured in everything from 1950s genre classics like “It Came From Outer Space” and “Tarantula,” to a 1959 episode of “The Twilight Zone” to “Gremlins.” But the reason that guests visited Courthouse Square during Fan Fest Nights was to take part in an elaborate “Back to the Future” experience. You could just hang out down there and watch actors portray all of the key characters from the movie – you’d watch as Marty first visited 1955, coming around the corner and bumbling into the service station, observe Biff getting reprimanded by the principal and, later in the night, larger tableaus blossomed, like the Enchantment Under the Sea dance and, even later, you’d see the lightning strike the clocktower. There were even two strips of flaming pavement and a license plate spinning around, just like it did when the DeLorean was sent back … to the future.

The ”Back to the Future” experience was a real highlight, but it was a little bit aimless. You could spend literal hours in the Courthouse Square, watching as the scenes would play out and transform, as guests interacted with the performers and new actors (with different energies and play styles) would enter the picture.

While, by all accounts, a huge success, the lack of structure for “Back to the Future” was something that Universal Creative and the park’s entertainment teams have addressed in the sophomore year, with a pair of big-draw experiences.

The first, and most successful, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Forbidden Forest: A Search for the Hippogriff, is based on the beloved IP created by J.K. Rowling and has become increasingly important to the Universal Parks portfolio. A walkthrough exhibit set in the Forbidden Forest (actually the extended outdoor queue for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey), where a small group of guests follow a Hogwarts professor as we traverse the area looking for an escaped Hippogriff, which finally reveals itself as a huge, fully articulated puppet. (This has shades of the Dungeons & Dragons experience, which climaxes with an encounter with a monster created by the wizards at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.)

The experience is funny and exciting, with some great reveals and encouraged (but not necessary) participation of guests, especially if they have one of the interactive wands that Universal sells in the Wizarding World gift shops. The small group setting, the stewardship of the performers, it all just works, in a big, big way. And judging by the wait times, the experience will be back, should Fan Fest Nights return for a third year.

As for the other marquee experience, Scooby-Doo Meets the Universal Monsters: Mystery on the Backlot, the results are more mixed. This is meant to really recapture the “Back to the Future” magic from last year and it does, to a degree, although the importance placed on participation is a big deterrent. To explain: the experience is set in Little Europe, a backlot location where they shot many of the classic Universal Monsters movies. It’s typically off-limits to guests; you glide by it on the backlot tour but that’s usually as close as you get. This is where you’re taken, to solve a mystery involving the Universal Monsters, the filming of a new movie (creatively titled “Monsters! Monsters! Monsters!”) and, of course, the Scooby Gang – the group of intrepid investigators and their adorable, snack-loving dog.

Before you board the Universal trams, you’re handed a book that is nearly as thick as a Cheesecake Factory menu. This is where you’re meant to detail clues, write down observations, and generally come to the conclusion of who is behind this mystery (the particular details of the mystery, along with much of this experience, is pretty fuzzy). You will also interact with both the Scooby-Doo characters as well as the Universal Monsters. Shaggy, for instance, can be seen at the catering station, grilling up some huge sausages.

And while the level of interactivity is encouraged, it was a little discouraging to see dozens of people leaning up against a wall and writing down clues with their little golf pencils, instead of just taking in the atmosphere. If the first year of Fan Fest Nights was about the vibes, this is much more interested in productivity. At the end of each night, you can watch a big reveal to see who the villain is. One of the cooler aspects of this year’s FFN (see, even the acronym mirrors Halloween Horror Nights’ abbreviated HHN) is that the villain is changed out every few days; that means the clues change, too. It also means that if you come to Fan Fest Nights twice during the extremely limited run, you could get two completely different outcomes.

If you want a lazier, more vibe-oriented walkthrough, there’s a “Jurassic Park” outpost on the lower lot near The Mummy that should fit the bill. There are some performers who do shocking good riffs on original characters as you meander through the different “eras” of the franchise, surrounded by screen-used props, replicas and occasional “live” dinosaurs.

The other big change, besides the more guided centerpiece experiences, is the greater emphasis on anime.

During the first year of Fan Fest, there was a meet-and-greet centered around “One Piece,” along with that “Jujutsu Kaisen” 3D movie in the DreamWorks Theater (where a “Kung Fu Panda” attraction typically resides). The meet-and-greet in particular was one of the more in-demand aspects of FFN. And this year Universal has doubled down.

“Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon the Miracle: Moon Palace Chapter Deluxe,” another theatrical anime experience borrowed from the Japanese park, is now exhibited at DreamWorks Theater. You can also meet the “Sailor Moon” characters in the plaza outside the theater. In addition to the “One Piece” meet-and-greet, there is an aquatic stunt show in the “Waterworld” theater (“One Piece: Grand Pirate Show”) and seemingly endless merchandise and food and beverage offerings, themed to “One Piece” and available exclusively during Fan Fest Nights. The whole area is themed to “One Piece” and it’s very impressive. There’s so much emphasis on anime properties and there were so many guests dressed as characters from those properties that it’s easy to imagine an entirely anime-themed version of Fan Fest Nights. There have been countless anime-themed takeovers of the Japanese park; certainly they can be repurposed here. There have been several “Neon Genesis Evangelion” experiences at the Universal park, including one that mixes “Evangelion” and “Godzilla.” Time to bring them stateside.

In its second year, Fan Fest Nights has become something more ambitious but also more unwieldy. They are clearly still in the test-and-adjust phase; next year, all the kinks should be ironed out, they should be able to bring in even bigger IP and find the right balance between atmospheric and interactive offerings. Also, with the event only running on select nights between April 23 and May 16, it would be great if the event started earlier in the year. If you push it past May 16, you’re encroaching on the busy summer season at Universal Studios Hollywood, which we understand would be bad. But if you started it in March, say in time for the first wave of spring breaks, then it would give more people an opportunity to experience Fan Fest Nights and for the event itself to evolve, which is certainly what happened at the “Back to the Future” experience during year one. Fan Fest Nights, more-so than Halloween Horror Nights, is an organism that is able to react and change based on guest interaction and demand. But if the story is so linear, it might not be able to happen in a way that feels so invigorating.

It’s still very much a must-do for themed entertainment enthusiasts. Your level of participation might vary, but no matter how you engage, you’ll still likely be dazzled.

Village Roadshow has reached a settlement with Warner Bros. to pay $57 million to the studio after an arbitrator ruled against them in a dispute over the financing and distribution agreement of the 2021 film “The Matrix Resurrections.”

In 2022, Warner Bros. filed arbitration demands to Village Roadshow over “Matrix Resurrections” and other IP the studio shared the rights to with Warner Bros.

Roadshow, which was struggling financially in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic and with the failing launch of its new television production division and the poor box office of “Matrix Resurrections,” filed a lawsuit against Warner, accusing the studio of breach of contract over its decision to release “Resurrections” day-and-date in theaters and on HBO Max.

Village Roadshow also alleged that it was shut out of co-financing sequels and remakes to key franchises it shared the rights to, including the Timothée Chalamet musical “Wonka.”

But when the lawsuit was moved to arbitration, a ruling came down in favor of Warner Bros., as the arbiter found that Roadshow had breached the film’s co-ownership and distribution agreements. Village Roadshow was ordered to pay Warner $125 million in exchange for a 50% share of profits from “Matrix Resurrections” after Warner recouped its marketing and distribution costs. That ruling played a factor in Village Roadshow’s bankruptcy last year.

In the wake of that bankruptcy, Warner filed a claim for the $125 million payment. The $57 million paid by Village Roadshow in the settlement is what remains of the $125 million payment minus what Roadshow would have received through the 50% profit share, which it no longer can acquire.

As for Village Roadshow’s catalog, Warner attempted to buy the derivative rights in bankruptcy court, but lost out to an $18.5 million offer from Alcon, which had previously purchased Roadshow’s catalog for $417.5 million. The derivative rights grant Alcon the right to produce sequels based on Roadshow’s catalog, including the 1998 fantasy film “Practical Magic,” which starred Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock and which is getting a sequel distributed by Warner this September.

UPDATE: 4 PM PT — The story has been updated with further clarification on the terms of the settlement.