18 Nov - Quentin Tarantino's plans to create his own "Pulp Fiction" NFT (non-fungible tokens) have been met with a lawsuit from Miramax. In an infringement lawsuit filed on 17 November by Miramax at the federal court in California, the studio stated that it has the contractual and intellectual property rights to one of its most iconic and valuable film properties. "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," the suit stated. In a statement, Miramax's legal rep Bart Williams of Proskauer Rose LLP, expressed, "This group chose to recklessly, greedily, and intentionally disregard the agreement that Quentin signed instead of following the clear legal and ethical approach of simply communicating with Miramax about his proposed ideas. This one-off effort devalues the NFT rights to Pulp Fiction, which Miramax intends to maximise through a strategic, comprehensive approach." On the other hand, Tarantino's lawyers stressed that the director reserved the rights to publish his own screenplay.
In a statement released by attorney Bryan Freedman, he said, "Miramax is wrong - plain and simple. Tarantino's contract is clear: he has the right to sell NFTs of his hand-written script for Pulp Fiction and this ham-fisted attempt to prevent him from doing so will fail. But Miramax's callous decision to disclose confidential information about its filmmakers' contracts and compensation will irreparably tarnish its reputation long after this case is dismissed." Earlier this month, Tarantino announced that seven secret NFTs based on the hit 1994 movie are being released, including scenes that were cut from the film.