hThe war of words has begun between lawyers for Miramax and Quentin Tarantino, and while the language might not be quite up to par for a Tarantino script from a style standpoint, it’s just as powerful. Miramax is attempting to stop Tarantino from selling NFTs connected to Pulp Fiction, and now the writer/director’s side has spoken out, and they’re not mincing words.
Following a cease and desist letter Miramax has filed a lawsuit against Quentin Tarantino in an attempt to get him to stop selling non-fungible tokens, NFTs, based on unused script pages from Pulp Fiction. Miramax claims Tarantino’s contract with the studio doesn’t give him the rights to NFTs. In a statement to The Wrap, Quentin Tarantino’s attorney Bryan Freedman said that the contract absolutely does give him the appropriate rights. And he took Miramax to task for even discussing the contract publicly, saying…
Miramax is wrong — plain and simple. Quentin 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
According to Miramax, the suit comes down to a portion of Quentin Tarantino’s contract that deals with “reserved rights,” which rights to Pulp Fiction Tarantino still has, as opposed to which rights Miramax took over when the studio produced the movie. Miramax enumerated several of those rights, but indicated that only those rights were reserved.
Quentin Tarantino’s side isn’t going into specifics about which part of the writer/director’s contract gives him the rights to sell NFTs, which maybe isn’t that surprising considering his attorney is being critical of Miramax for releasing contract specifics to the public. Still, they seem quite sure that the contract language is on their side.
There could be a hint of the argument to come in the statement from Freedman. It could be that because the NFTs are coming from Quentin Tarantino’s “hand written” script, that his lawyers believe he still retains the rights. These are scenes that were never made part of the film, so maybe Miramax doesn’t technically own the rights to them, they only exist as pages that Tarantino wrote himself, and it’s these physical pages that the NFTs would be based on.
Certainly, there’s no direct reference to anything like NFTs in a contract from the ‘90s. The question will likely come down to the language used in the contract. It may reference the rights of digital content in a way that Tarantino’s side can argue that NFTs would be included.
If this case makes it to trial it could end up being quite important, as it could create a legal precedent for how NFTs are seen, which, considering how profitable they can be, could end up being quite lucrative for some.