After Michael Caine announced he’s selling his film memorabilia, and registration opened for Quentin Tarantino’s more modern alternative in NFTS, we look at the diverse world of 21st Century film memorabilia.
It was yesterday announced that Sir Michael Caine is selling years worth of movie memorabilia. Following a career on screen spanning over six decades, the 88-year old icon is set to auction off relics from his time on screen in order to downsize his house.
The items will go on sale at Bonhams in London, on March 2nd, along with works from his art collection and a series of personal belongings. The movie memorabilia consists of original posters from the 1964 classic Zulu and 1965’s The Impress Files, as well as a personalised director’s chair and poster from 1971’s Get Carter.
Caine is also selling a page of autographs he collected at the 1970 Tony Awards. Signees include Julie Andrews, Jimmy Stewart, Mia Farrow, Barbara Streisand, Carey Grant, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn and Maggie Smith.
These articles not only now represent a bygone era of cinema, but, increasingly, a bygone era of memorabilia. With the movie industry and movie fans looking to monetise collectables from their favourite work, tokens have expanded beyond vintage posters and costumes.
Unsurprisingly, in this day and age, movie inspired NFTs have arrived. A variety of different non-fungible tokens have arisen over the last couple of years, from some of the biggest movies, franchises and personalities in modern cinema.
One of the most high profile examples has been Quentin Tarantino’s foray into digital art. On the same day Caine listed his collection at Bonhams, registration opened on Tarantino’s new NFT website, selling modern memorabilia from his 1994 classic Pulp Fiction.
Of course, with Tarantino, quite what his NFT collection actually is, is hard to decipher. They are each listed as an “original script from a single iconic scene, as well as personalized audio commentary from Quentin Tarantino himself.” Except, of course, they aren’t the original script. They are unique and one-of-a-kind, but they are versions of the original script.
They are also what is called a “Secret NFT.” This means that access belongs solely to the owner. They can choose whether to keep them personally or display them in public, and the works will be protected, meaning “only the owner of these scenes will be able to decrypt the images and audio contained inside the NFTs.”
Tarantino’s launch has been partly mired by an ongoing legal dispute with Miramax. The production company behind Pulp Fiction argue that they own the intellectual property for the film, which includes the scripts, and have begun drafting legal action against Tarantino should the sales go ahead.
Tarantino with the disgraced Miramax founder Harvey Weinstein.
Not one to be constrained, Tarantino is ploughing onward. We’ll see what happens next, as the legal case ensues.
Movie-inspired NFTs have appeared from other films and in other forms as well. With the release of last year’s No Time To Die, the world saw the first NFT movie ticket stubs. Launched by Cinemark on the app VeVe, the limited edition stubs aim to form the latest component of the 007 complete collection. The stubs were launched alongside other Bond NFTs, including digital No Time To Die posters.
Another example is the estate of Stan Lee. The Twitter account of the American comic book legend, who passed away in 2018, is now being used to sell NFTs based around his lifetime’s work. The move divided opinion. You can read more about it at whynow, by clicking here.
