Miramax is trying to shoot down Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFT plans

The Future. Quentin Tarantino is planning on auctioning seven scenes from his seminal work, Pulp Fiction, as NFTs… but Miramax, the production company behind the film, is trying to stop the sale in its tracks. With both sides battling over the definition of “reserved rights,” the legal showdown may beg the ultimate web3 question: “Who owns art, the creator or the sponsor?”

Cinema squeeze
Tarantino’s NFT plans were hit with a dramatic twist.

• Refresher: Quentin Tarantino announced that he is auctioning seven previously unreleased scenes from the script of Pulp Fiction as NFTs.
  • They would also include new audio commentary from Tarantino (yes, we would like one of these NFTs).
• But Miramax, which is co-owned by ViacomCBS and BeIN Media Group, doesn’t like that idea — it filed a lawsuit in California alleging copyright infringement and breach of contract.

Miramax says that it’s launching its own NFT offerings centered around the company’s content library, and Tarantino’s move could “devalue” those plans.

Whose rights are they anyway?
Tarantino’s camp says that the filmmaker is well within his rights to offer the NFTs because his contract for Pulp Fiction let him retain “reserved rights” to the IP, including “soundtrack album, music publishing, live performance, print publication, interactive media, theatrical and television sequel and remake rights, and television series and spinoff rights.” An NFT has to fall into one of those categories.

Of course, Miramax sees Tarantino’s auction as a test case, which, if successful, could open the floodgates for countless creators with reserved rights offering their own NFTs to Miramax titles. That’s the last thing the production company wants when it hopes to profit off NFTs themselves.