Name: Pulp Fiction.
Age: 27.
Appearance: Much less fungible than you remember.
I’m sorry, I don’t know what fungible means. It means the opposite of whatever an NFT is. NFT stands for “non-fungible token”.
I don’t know what an NFT is either. Then, sadly, Quentin Tarantino is way ahead of you. Now that he’s starting to wind up his directing career, he appears to be embarking on a new adventure in crypto-art.
I’m none the wiser. He’s selling Pulp Fiction NFTs.
OK, I have heard of Pulp Fiction! There we go. Tarantino wants to sell seven unique Pulp Fiction collectibles as NFTs. If you ever wanted to own a digital recording of the “Royale with Cheese” scene, or a recording of Tarantino revealing secrets about the project, this is your chance.
Right, so these are basically DVD extras? Sort of, except there will only ever be one copy of each and they will probably cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Well, good for him. Wait, that’s not the whole story. Miramax, the movie studio that released Pulp Fiction, is suing Tarantino to stop this from happening.
Why? According to Miramax, Tarantino signed away his rights to the film when it was being developed. Basically, he is accused of not owning the things he is trying to sell.
Uh-huh. Except Tarantino says that, in the negotiation, he was careful not to give away reserved rights to print publication of the script. And the NFT is basically a print publication of the script.
Right. Except Miramax says that selling some of the script once for an enormous amount of money is a different thing to printing the whole script as a book.
What you seem to be saying is that the contract signed by Tarantino and Miramax three decades ago didn’t accurately predict the rise of unregulated moneymaking schemes that operate on the blockchain, and that its now-vague wording has allowed for two different readings that may prevent the other party from making money. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.
Either way, I guess the world might never get to see a Pulp Fiction NFT. Quite the opposite. Now that everyone knows there’s money to be made, it seems certain that there will be Pulp Fiction NFTs soon. If Miramax wins, it will release them itself, along with NFTs of the rest of its film library.
So there will be Jersey Girl NFTs? Steady on, people won’t buy any old rubbish.
Do say: “Quentin Tarantino has realised that the future of commerce lies in NFTs.”
Don’t say: “Look out for his new film, Django Unblockchained.”
