The Pulp Fiction NFT saga ends tragically

The Future. While a battle went on in court over whether Quentin Tarantino or Miramax had the right to sell NFTs based on the screenplay of Pulp Fiction, SCRT Labs (the company that held the auction) was handling a drama of its own — what to do with the one NFT of the collection that officially sold. While it’s common knowledge now that the NFT market is still in its Wild West stages, the disappearance of the one Tarantino NFT that sold shows why legal contracts always need to be signed before getting up in the hype of a group purchase.

A Web3 standoff

According to Variety, the Pulp Fiction NFT fight is just as twisty as a Tarantino film.

• In January, NFT marketplace Secret Network partnered with Tarantino to hold an auction for a collection based on the original screenplay of the film.

• Secret Network really wanted to make a splash with the collection and make sure the first NFT, the “Royale with Cheese,” sold for over a million dollars to usher in its arrival in Hollywood.

• So SCRT Labs CEO Guy Zyskind put in around $250,000 of his own money to start the bid and urged a Telegram group of 300 Secret Network users to band together to get the auction to seven figures.

• Each member of the group, dubbed AnonDOA, would own a part of the NFT, with viewing rights to be determined after the auction.

• “Royale With Cheese” ultimately sold for $1.1 million… but the problem is that the auction was immediately caught up in the Tarantino vs. Miramax litigation. The whole collection was then scrapped.

• Now, the NFT is in a sort of limbo state — it’s not viewable to anyone, it’s unsellable, and ownership rights are still up in the air. But it does exist. Members of AnonDAO are, understandably, angry at all the money they wasted.

Meanwhile, Tarantino and Miramax have settled their lawsuit and may work on NFTs together… just not with Secret Network.

But Secret Network is still chasing its Hollywood dreams, having minted NFTs for Kevin Smith’s Killroy Was Here, with a plan to turn user-generated content into an NFT sequel of the film.