Quentin Tarantino sued over Pulp Fiction NFTs
The firm filed a complaint to the Central District of California’s US District Court
US entertainment company Miramax LLC has sued actor and director Quentin Tarantino, claiming that he allegedly hid his plans to auction off seven exclusive scenes from the 1994 motion picture Pulp Fiction as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The firm – which filed a complaint to the US District Court Central District Of California for alleged breach of contract, copyright infringement, trademark infringement and unfair competition – is currently seeking damages and compensation expenses, in an amount to be determined at trial, and an injunction preventing alleged violations of Miramax’s rights in and to Pulp Fiction.
On the other hand, Tarantino has claimed he was acting within his “reserved rights”, specifically the right to ”screenplay publication”, and that his reserved rights are sufficient to carry on with his NFT project.
The legal quarrel
“Eager to cash in on the NFT boom […] Tarantino kept his Pulp Fiction NFT plans secret from Miramax,” the aggrieved company claimed.
According to Miramax, Tarantino “granted and assigned nearly all of his rights to Pulp Fiction, and all its elements in all stages of development and production, to Miramax in 1993, including the rights necessary for the ‘secrets of Pulp Fiction’ Tarantino intends to sell.
On the other hand, the actor’s counsel claimed that “the collection consisting of seven NFTs, each containing a high-resolution digital scan of Quentin’s original handwritten screenplay pages, are for a single scene from his screenplay for Pulp Fiction.”
According to Tarantino’s counsel, “No other embellishment or additions to the actual screenplay scans themselves”and that each NFT will include a “drawing that will be inspired by some element from the scene”, allowing the actor to carry on his plans.
In counter to Tarantino’s counsel, Miramax LLC concluded its case by observing that: “The right to sell NFTs of such excerpts of any version of the screenplay to Pulp Fiction is owned and controlled by Miramax.”
Quentin Tarantino’s company, Visiona Romantica, did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
