Sean Penn’s lawyers have warned the streaming service Netflix it will have “blood on their hands” if a documentary about the actor’s meeting with Mexican drug lord El Chapo is released.

The Oscar-winner is said to fear for his safety over the suggestion he helped bring the infamous Mexican criminal to justice by working with the American government.

However Netflix is standing its ground, noting Mr Penn himself has discussed the bizarre meeting and refusing to pull the “stranger-than-fiction” story.

The row centres on an audience that El Chapo granted Mr Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo in October 2015.

El Chapo, a narco trafficker whose real name is Joaquín Guzmán Loera, was one of the world’s most wanted men at the time. Just months later he was captured.

Netflix is set to retell the encounter in a documentary called ‘The Day I Met El Chapo: The Kate del Castillo Story’, based on the Mexican actress's account.