Quentin Tarantino, Miramax Settle Lawsuit Over ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFTs

Following a contentious legal battle over the release of NFT collectibles based on director and writer Quentin Tarantino’s film “Pulp Fiction,” the opposing sides in the case have agreed to settle the case—and potentially collaborate on more NFTs too.

Lawyers for movie studio Miramax filed a brief court statement on Thursday noting that they planned to withdraw their case against Tarantino and SCRT Labs, which released the first of several planned “Pulp Fiction” NFTs on Secret Network in January. SCRT Labs is the primary contributor to Secret Network and represents the network’s founders.

“The parties have settled this case and expect to file their dismissal papers within two weeks,” the court filing read, per a report from Variety.

A Miramax representative today sent Decrypt the following joint statement with Tarantino: “The parties have agreed to put this matter behind them and look forward to collaborating with each other on future projects, including possible NFTs.”

Tarantino and SCRT Labs made news last November when they announced plans to release NFTs based on the filmmaker’s original script for “Pulp Fiction.” The NFTs would use Secret Network’s privacy-centric Secret NFTs technology to embed exclusive, never-before-seen material from Tarantino’s script that only the NFT’s holder could view.

Miramax, which distributed “Pulp Fiction” in 1994, quickly filed suit against Tarantino and the crypto startup, alleging that they did not have the rights to create NFTs around the film, and that the parties conspired to keep their plans secret from the studio.

Tarantino’s camp claimed that his original distribution agreement with Miramax included “reserved rights” for him to reproduce the script—and that creating NFTs was a modern extension of those rights. An NFT is a blockchain token that represents ownership in an item, and is often used for digital goods like collectibles or artwork.

Despite the legal wrangling, SCRT Labs and Tarantino went ahead and auctioned the first NFT in January. SCRT Labs announced that it sold for $1.1 million. A Secret Network-based decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called AnonsDAO purchased it, leading some “200 confirmed bids,” the company claimed.

A DAO is an online collective in which membership is typically represented by token ownership. DAOs can be used for investing in NFTs or projects, governing Web3 protocols, and other initiatives.

Despite the seven-figure sale of the first NFT in the project, planned auctions for six additional “Pulp Fiction” NFTs were postponed due to what NFT platform LegenDAO cited in late January as “extreme market volatility.” The broader NFT market was relatively hot in January, but has seen falling prices and trading action since May’s market-wide crypto crash.

It’s unclear whether the six further NFT auctions will be rescheduled at this point. A Miramax representative said that the parties will have no further comment on the matter, although their joint statement pointed towards potential NFT collaboration to come.

Miramax had previously said that it too planned to make “Pulp Fiction” NFTs, thus leading to the legal battle as Tarantino and SCRT Labs went ahead without the studio’s involvement.

Secret Network’s SCRT token is up 13% over the last 24 hours to a current price of $1.22, per data from CoinGecko, perhaps buoyed by the diminished legal threat against the network’s primary contributors. The wider crypto market is up about 7% during the span.