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Samuel L. Jackson in the gangster classic "Pulp Fiction"
Photo: Miramax / Everett Collection / ddp images
The film production company Miramax has sued Quentin Tarantino - because he has announced that he wants to sell documents for the film "Pulp Fiction" as digital collectibles.
Tarantino's idea promises huge business: With “Pulp Fiction” the director became a star in 1994, “Time” magazine considers the work to be one of the best 100 films of all time. Scenes like Uma Thurman's dance with John Travolta, or how Samuel L. Jackson quotes a Bible-like verse - the soundtrack and dialogues of the gangster film are legendary to this day.
"Pulp Fiction" is so iconic that fans would probably outbid each other for the accessories to the film in auctions to astronomical heights. Tarantino recently announced seven digital products made from extra material as digital packages that are tied to a specific owner through cryptocurrency technology. In December, Tarantino wanted to sell scanned digital copies of handwritten script pages for uncut versions of scenes, plus audio commentary and "secret extras" that would only be available to buyers. The collections are to be auctioned on the NFT auction platform Opensea.
As with Bitcoin, with NFTs (Non-Fungible Token) it is permanently documented on a blockchain who owns something and at what point in time.
A huge business is currently based on this digital certification.
Never before has so much money been spent on digital art or collectibles as in 2021. Auction platforms kept reporting new top prices for pixelated graphics, tweets or video clips from basketball players, but also for digital art.
James Bond NFTs are also on the market
For the cultural sector it was like a revolution: previously unknown digital artists like graphic designer Beeple became stars.
Christie's auctioned the file of a mosaic-like collage, encrypted on a decentralized database, for $ 69 million in March.
The musician Grimes sold images with her music within 20 minutes for the equivalent of 5.8 million dollars.
The hype about the culture in the world of the kryptonerds continues to break all records, even if all actors realize that a large part of their investments are speculative.
Art market experts warn that the insane prices by no means mean that the purchased objects will retain their value over the next 20 years.
Crypto millionaires, on the other hand, want to invest the profits they generate from the extremely volatile prices in other business areas.
NFTs can be used to trade anything that is virtually available, so it is hardly surprising that the film industry is now joining the business. Parallel to the current Bond film “No Time To Die”, digital collectibles were developed as NFTs, such as digital models of a glider and the face mask of the Bond opponent Safin. Disney also recently joined forces with the NFT platform Veve, which specializes in films, in order to be able to offer collectibles from the Marvel and Pixar universes in the future. NFTs will probably be part of the common blockbuster merchandise in the future.
NFT deals with older films, however, are trickier because blockchain products were inconceivable in 1994.
Miramax claims that Tarantino is violating the copyrights of "Pulp Fiction" with the scans of his handwritten script pages.
It is "one of Miramax's most iconic and valuable film objects," and the company fears that after Tarantino, other people involved could come up with the idea of pursuing NFT business.
Tarantino's lawyers responded to a cease and desist letter, according to the lawsuit, stating that the sales fell under Tarantino's partial rights to the production, including the rights to publish the script.