The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has extended the deadline for Red Granite Pictures and its affiliate firms to respond to the department's civil forfeiture suit.

According to the California Central District Court filing, Red Granite and its affiliate firms have until Oct 28 to respond to the forfeiture action.

It was filed by the asset forfeiture and money laundering section chief M Kendall Day and United States attorney Eileen Decker.

The filing was dated Sept 28, two days before the initial deadline for claimants to respond to the suit.

Red Granite earlier stated its intention to contest the forfeiture action, court filings show.

This comes as the Directors' Guild of America (DGA), the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artist and the Writers Guild of America filed documents to contest the forfeiture.

They argue that the forfeiture of proceeds from Red Granite-produced 'The Wolf of Wall Street' will affect their payment due to their members.

"Accordingly, DGA asserts its interest in the defendants' property and has standing to contest its forfeiture," the DGA said in a filing on Oct 7.

Similar filings were made by the other two guilds on the same day.

The DOJ on the same day also filed several documents in court, but the documents are sealed following an application from the department.

The reason for the application is also sealed.

The DOJ in July filed a lawsuit to seize at least US$1 billion of assets, believed to have been bought using funds the DOJ alleged were siphoned from 1MDB.

These include future proceeds from the film 'The Wolf of Wall Street', which it said was funded using 1MDB funds.

The production firm Red Granite is founded by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's stepson Riza Aziz.

Riza, Malaysian businessman Jho Low and two Abu Dhabi businessmen were named in the lawsuit.