Calling the cult crime noir film one of its most valuable properties, the production company filed suit after a cease-and-desist letter was ignored.
Miramax is threatening to strike down upon Quentin Tarantino with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy its ability to sell Pulp Fiction NFTs.
More prosaically, the film studio once controlled and defined by now-convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein is suing the director over plans to sell seven non-fungible tokens with secret, unreleased scenes from the classic 1994 best picture nominee.
Claiming it has its own plans for a line of Pulp Fiction NFTs, Miramax has sued Tarantino for breach of contract, copyright infringement, trademark infringement and unfair competition.
Miramax claims that it owns nearly all the rights to Pulp Fiction, and that Tarantino’s claim that his right to publication of the screenplay allows him to sell NFTs containing unreleased footage of the film alongside new commentary, images of the original screenplay amounts to a “deliberate, pre-meditated, short-term money grab.”
The collection is scheduled to be auctioned on leading NFT marketplace OpenSea. It was produced on Secret NFTs, private-by-default tokens issued on the Secret Network blockchain.
Unlike NFTs on Ethereum and other blockchains, the Secret NFTs do not rely on public-facing metadata which makes images stored on the blockchain visible to anyone, Secret said in a release. It added:
“Secret NFTs change all this, enabling NFTs to contain both public and private metadata as well as giving the choice to the owner between publicly displaying ownership — or keeping it secret.”
Tarantino said: “Secret Network and Secret NFTs provide a whole new world of connecting fans and artists and I’m thrilled to be a part of that.”
Responding to the lawsuit on the @TarantinoNFTs Twitter account, he said:
“NFTs are meant to empower creators, connecting them directly with their audiences and communities. Secret NFTs on @SecretNetwork take this potential a step further. Now some in the media world want to take a massive step back. We stand with creators.”
Next-Generation NFTs
Claiming its NFTs “dramatically expand” the potential uses of the token class, which contains unique, unchangeable media ranging from images and video to text and smart contracts, Secret Network said:
“Secret NFTs could be used to set up private galleries, maintain financial privacy for artists, or conduct sealed bid auctions. Digital media could use Secret NFTs to create watermarked content or to protect exclusive or gated content.”
Beyond that, the company claims that its Secret NFTs would be a perfect platform for a variety of gaming content, as well as digital IDs, passports, receipts for high end goods and real estate, and event ticketing.
