LOS ANGELES — Hollywood studio Miramax filed a lawsuit Tuesday against director Quentin Tarantino over his plans to sell digital collectibles based on his 1994 film “Pulp Fiction.”
Tarantino recently announced he will sell a series of unique, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on his handwritten screenplay for the 1995 Palme d’Or winner, a movie described by the Cannes film festival as a set of “dime-store stories set in lowlife LA.”
A website for the NFT sales states they will include a digital version of the film’s profane, “iconic ‘Royale with Cheese’ scene,” as well as a recording of Tarantino revealing “secrets” about the project.
The lawsuit from Miramax, which produced the film and is owned by Bein Media Group and ViacomCBS, alleges Tarantino also plans to sell NFTs of page scans and digital film props.
Tarantino’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
According to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages, a lawyer for the director responded to Miramax’s Nov. 4 cease-and-desist letter by saying he holds reserved rights to print publication of the script.
Miramax argued in the suit that print publication and NFTs are not the same.
“The proposed sale of a few original script pages or scenes as an NFT is a one-time transaction, which does not constitute publication, and in any event does not fall within the intended meaning of ‘print publication’ or ‘screenplay publication,'” the suit states. “The right to sell NFTs of such excerpts of any version of the screenplay to Pulp Fiction is owned and controlled by Miramax.”
In the suit, which was filed in Los Angeles federal court, Miramax argues that Tarantino essentially signed away rights to “all media” for “Pulp Fiction” in perpetuity when the film was under development in 1993.
“Miramax holds the rights needed to develop, market, and sell NFTs relating to its deep film library,” the studio’s suit says.