Police investigating alleged threats to company over Aaron Hernandez film

The Santa Monica Police Department is investigating alleged threats made to employees of the Mark Gordon Company over a movie about former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, according to Deadline's Anita Busch.

The company acquired feature film rights to the upcoming book "All-American Murder: The Rise and Fall of Aaron Hernandez, the Superstar Whose Life Ended on Murderer's Row" in January.

According to a restraining order petition filed Feb. 7, a producer named Todd Guzze emailed one of Mark Gordon's employees, Josh Clay Phillips, stating the Bloods and Latin Kings gangs are part of his own Hernandez project and attached a photo of men holding guns. In the email, Guzze noted he was "keeping them at bay right now."

An officer working the case told Deadline the Santa Monica Police Department's criminal investigations division is trying to determine whether Guzze's emails and phone calls qualify as "criminal threats."

Related: Aaron Hernandez's defense attorney writing tell-all book

Hernandez committed suicide in his jail cell on April 19, 2017, while serving a life sentence for the murder of Odin Lloyd.