Movie posters can become as beloved as their source material, which is driving an unusual lawsuit over who owns the key art image from 1994 crime yarn “Pulp Fiction.”
The photographer who shot the iconic poster image of actress Uma Thurman lying on her stomach seductively puffing on a cigarette next to a large pistol claims he owns the imagery, and is suing “Pulp Fiction” distributor Miramax. Firooz Zahedi is a noted commercial photographer who says he got $10,000 in 1994 for creating the iconic image. The visual is not from the movie but rather is presented as faux crime magazine cover circa 1950s.
Says a Hollywood Reporter story by Eriq Gardner, “According to Miramax, though, Zahedi was fulfilling someone else’s vision, and he worked under a work-for-hire agreement. The rub? The documents have gone missing. A Disney employee, per a declaration from a Miramax lawyer, says there’s no way that the ‘Pulp Fiction’ VHS would have been released without having cleared the cover image while Zahedi’s legal team has its own studio insider coming forward about how ‘Miramax’s business practices in 1994 did not include procuring executed photographer contracts’.”
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Miramax also complains that Zahedi waited too long to assert his claims.
In his lawsuit, Zahedi lays claim to “untold thousands of consumer products” using the movie poster art. His complaint also opens the door for him to simply get ownership of sultry pose photo, and not the more elaborate poster using the image; but that puts him in line for sharing royalties for movie merchandise as “derivative works.” Zahedi’s pleadings assert Miramax does not have the rights to sublicense his photograph for movie merchandise and other tangential uses.
The dispute dates to late 2019 and now is civil litigation in federal district court in Los Angeles; the next hearing is Oct. 22 for the court to decide competing and conflicting requests for Motions for Summary Judgement. Miramax wants the matter dismissal for a number of reasons while Zahedi wants a declaration “Pulp Fiction” merchandise using his photo is an infringement on his rights. Miramax claims it owns the foundation photograph.
Hollywood has historically been sloppy and lax about protecting its marketing materials, even though they sometimes become as beloved as the movies themselves. In 2016, Warner Bros. Pictures did win a lawsuit stopping a merchandise company from putting advertising images of old Warner movies on products. The merchandise outfit asserted that, while the source movies were copyrighted, the marketing materials were not, though that argument didn’t prevail. The ruling put an end to unauthorized used of marketing images from Warner-distributed “Gone with the Wind’ and “The Wizard of Oz.”
When “Pulp Fiction” was released, Miramax was then a Walt Disney unit run by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and today is jointly owned by media company beIN Group and the giant ViacomCBS, which owns Paramount Pictures.
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