By ANDREW DALTON

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “It Ends With Us” actor and director Justin Baldoni has sued his co-star Blake Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, for defamation on Thursday in the latest step in a bitter legal battle surrounding the dark romantic drama.

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Baldoni’s suit seeks at least $400 million for damages that include lost future income. The lawsuit from Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios, which also names publicist Leslie Sloane as a defendant, comes about two weeks after Lively sued Baldoni and several others tied to the film, alleging harassment and a coordinated campaign to attack her reputation for coming forward about her treatment on the set.

That lawsuit came the same day that Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel, alleging the paper worked with Lively to smear him.

The new lawsuit filed in federal court in New York says the plaintiffs did not want to file the suit, but that Lively “has unequivocally left them with no choice, not only to set the record straight in response to Lively’s accusations, but also to put the spotlight on the parts of Hollywood that they have dedicated their careers to being the antithesis of.”

An email seeking comment from Sloane, whose PR company represents both Lively and Reynolds, was not immediately answered.

The two actors are also both represented by agency WME, which dropped Baldoni as a client after Lively filed a legal complaint that was a precursor to her lawsuit and the Times published its story on the fight surrounding the film.

The surprise hit film based on the novel by Colleen Hoover has made major waves in Hollywood and led to discussions of the treatment of female actors both on sets and in media.