Tarantino Won't Let Miramax Stand in the Way of His 'Pulp Fiction' NFTs
Tarantino and Miramax are in a heated battle over who owns NFT rights to Pulp Fiction.
If you haven't been keeping up with the news, Quentin Tarantino has been trying to sell non-fungible tokens of his Pulp Fiction screenplay.
Everything was going according to plan, until Miramax stepped in and said he couldn't do that, because they owned it.
Among the things he plans to sell are annotated screenplay pages and his handwritten original screenplay. So there are some rare treasures in there. Now there's a real battle going on for who can sell images of a script that you can download free online. Are you keeping up?
According to the New York Times, there will be a hearing in February for both sides to state their case. But outside of that, Tarantino is moving ahead to sell the NFTs.
A press release expands on what actually is being auctioned off.
“The secret content itself is one-of-a-kind, has never been seen or heard before, and will include the uncut first handwritten scripts of Pulp Fiction and exclusive custom commentary from Tarantino, revealing secrets about the film and its creator. The public metadata of the NFT—the ‘front cover’ of this exclusive content—is rare in its own right: a unique, never-before-seen, public-facing work of art.”
The blockchain partnering with Tarantino, SCRT Labs, plans to auction seven chapters of the script between January 17 and January 31.
So what is the legal battle here? Well, the Times explains that “Miramax’s lawyers argue that NFTs are unique… Mr. Tarantino’s legal team argues that he is merely reproducing copies of his original script, a right he reserved.”
This is a pretty interesting case with ripple effects that will echo inside Hollywood. Imagine all writer-directors having a precedent to do something like this with their work! Or even people who just own original drafts of ideas that studios changed. Could Colin Trevorrow auction off his lost Star Wars screenplay as an NFT? What about early drafts of studio movies that never get made? Who owns those images?
We'll keep a close eye on this and let you know what happens.
