A contract written in the early 1990s is at the centre of a new legal row that sees filmmaker Quentin Tarantino being sued over NFTs.
The biggest breakout hit that production company Miramax ever enjoyed was Quentin Tarantino’s second movie as writer/director, Pulp Fiction. Tarantino won an Oscar for the modestly-costed film, it grossed over $100m at the American box office, and it continues to endure over 25 years later.
It seems therefore that the film bubbles up in the news every year or two anyway. But the contents of the film’s suitcase to whoever could have predicted this year’s twist in the tale.
Earlier this year, Tarantino announced that he was getting into the world of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs to their (few) mates. NFTs are – and this is the briefest, most basic definition we can rustle up (we talked more about them here) – unique digital tokens, such as collectables. What makes them valuable is their sparseness.
Tarantino’s wheeze was that he planned to release seven different Pulp Fiction tokens, for the purchaser to do with whatever they pleased. They could keep them to themselves, or share the content of them widely. The filmmaker, whose net worth is estimated to be just north of $100mm, has planned to raise a few quid by auctioning the seven NFTs, each of which contains behind the scenes material about the film. That includes handwritten scripts, and exclusive commentary on some of the film’s secrets.
When is a launch date expected for the NFT Auction?
A launch date for the NFT auction hadn’t been announced, but there’s been something of a fly in the ointment. For Tarantino has incited the ire of Miramax, which has bashed out a cease and desist letter.
Miramax has gone through a chance of ownership since the days Tarantino was making films for convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. Disney had bought the famous indie firm in the early 1990s, but since sold it on. And according to the current Miramax owners, it too has plans for NFTs around its library of films, Pulp Fiction included.
The lawsuit it’s filed reads “Tarantino’s conduct has forced Miramax to bring this lawsuit against a valued collaborator in order to enforce, preserve, and protect its contractual and intellectual property rights relating to one of Miramax’s most iconic and valuable film properties”, adding “Left unchecked, Tarantino’s conduct could mislead others into believing Miramax is involved in his venture. And it could also mislead others into believing they have the rights to pursue similar deals or offerings, when in fact Miramax holds the rights needed to develop, market, and sell NFTs relating to its deep film library”.
What confuses things a little further is that Tarantino does hold some rights to Pulp Fiction, but not all of them. But Miramax clearly feels those that he holds don’t allow him to auction off his NFTs.
The Hollywood Reporter has more on this here.
We’d still argue that the very idea of an NFT is impenetrable to many on our side of the fence. But it ain’t going to stop Hollywood trying to fill its boots, and as such, eyes will be on just how these particular legal shenanigans play out. After all, who could have written an contract in the early 1990s and foreseen that one day, it’d need to be robust enough to cover a digital token that doesn’t in any physical sense exist?
