Quentin Tarantino moves forward with 'Pulp Fiction' NFT auction despite Miramax lawsuit

UPDATE (12:00 p.m. ET): A Miramax representative provided a statement to The Block from Bart Williams, a partner at Proskauer Rose LLP and attorney for Miramax in their lawsuit against Tarantino, after this article's publication:

"Any claim that Tarantino has 'defeated' this lawsuit is verifiably false as Miramax’s claims and the litigation remains pending. There’s been no attempt to dismiss any of Miramax’s claims by Tarantino’s team, nor have they filed any counter claims or motions against Miramax, and since Miramax filed its lawsuit, the promotional website and Twitter account for the proposed sale have scaled back the unauthorized use of imagery from Miramax films (including Pulp Fiction). For anyone to presume Tarantino victorious at this time by merely filing his response to the complaint is inaccurate, misleading and premature to say the least."

On December 9, Tarantino and his production company Visiona Romantica filed a response to Miramax's complaint and had not followed up since, the Miramax representative says. The parties involved in the lawsuit are scheduled to meet in court on February 24, 2022. 

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino announced Wednesday that he is moving forward with a public non-fungible token (NFT) auction of his Pulp Fiction screenplay — despite an outstanding lawsuit from the American entertainment giant Miramax, which produced the film. 

Tarantino and his partner SCRT Labs, the creator of a privacy-focused blockchain, plan to auction six chapters of the Pulp Fiction script between January 17 and January 31. The NFTs in the collection will reflect a single scene from one of seven chapters in the script, as well as audio commentary from Tarantino. 

Individuals must pre-register for the auction in order to buy an NFT. Registration for the auction begins January 10. The NFTs in the Tarantino Collection are based on the Ethereum blockchain, and users must have ETH or ETC-20-compatible stablecoins to purchase an NFT. 

Tarantino and SCRT Labs originally announced plans to hold the Pulp Fiction NFT auction on November 2, 2021 on the Secret Network, which privatizes some NFT metadata so that only the token owner can view them. Miramax then sued the filmmaker, alleging that “Tarantino kept his Pulp Fiction NFT plans a secret from Miramax,” ignored a cease-and-desist concerning the NFT sale and infringed on the production company's copyrights over Pulp Fiction.

SCRT Labs did not respond in time to clarify how much a Tarantino NFT will initially cost at the auction, whether the firm expects further legal action from Miramax after the auction or how Tarantino is proving he owns the copyright to the Pulp Fiction NFTs. Miramax claimed in a November 2021 lawsuit that he does not own the copyright. 

“Secret Network is proud to stand with Quentin,” said Guy Zyskind, Founder and CEO of SCRT Labs, in a release sent to The Block.