Miramax LLC, the American production house, has sued the American filmmaker and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino on Tuesday over the auctioning of seven non-fungible tokens (NFTs) related to his 1994 film Pulp Fiction, financed by Miramax, that include uncut scenes from the film, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Owned by the Me Too convict producer Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein, Miramax, has sought damages and has asked to block the director from violating its IP rights. Among other things, they have called the NFT sale a “deliberate, pre-meditated, short-term money grab by the Tarantino team” in a statement.
Earlier this November, Tarantino had announced plans of releasing the NFTs based on the film accessible to the buyers.
NFTs are a type of non-transferable or irreplaceable digital collectible stored on a blockchain that gives its buyers exclusive access to specific content. According to Fortune‘s report, Tarantino’s NFTs are “Secret NFTs” built on blockchain provider Secret Network which enables the buyers to have a public-facing as well as the secret element.
Besides the unreleased scenes from the original film, Tarantino’s NFTs will also include the uncut first handwritten scripts of Pulp Fiction along with exclusive custom commentary from Tarantino himself where he reveals secrets about the film and its creator.
Two days after Tarantino’s announcement, Miramax had sent a cease-and-desist letter to stop him from doing it, to which the filmmaker argued that this was well within his “Reserved Rights,” specifically the right to “screenplay publication.”
According to the lawsuit, Tarantino “made no efforts to contact Miramax prior to his coordinated press campaign, despite having what were likely extensive negotiations with third parties to develop and sell the NFTs.”
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“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,” the company wrote in its lawsuit as per The Hollywood Reporter.
Further, the lawsuit stated, “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.”
Pulp Fiction, the American crime black comedy written and directed by Tarantino and starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, was Miramax’s first fully-financed film that had a box office earning of $213,928,762 gross worldwide.