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Ernst & Young’s Blockchain Technology to Create NFTs for Award-Winning Italian Film

A blockchain-as-a-service dubbed EY OpsChain under big-four accounting and auditing firm Ernst & Young will create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for the award-winning Italian film La Leggenda Di Kaspar Hauser.

Per the announcement:

“EY teams worked with CinTech to design a disruptive business vision for the entertainment industry to help filmmakers reach new audience and drive additional revenue streams.”

CinTech, an Italian-based blockchain startup, tasks to create 62 NFTs using EY OpsChain for the 22 main scenes of the Italian film.

Non-fungible tokens’ ownership is pegged on their uniqueness. Therefore, NFTs are different from typical crypto tokens because of fungibility. Fungible tokens can be exchanged for another, whereas NFTs cannot be based on their finite nature.

Giuseppe Perrone, EY’s blockchain leader, noted:

“We are proud to support a new and innovative way of driving value for the film industry. It demonstrates the tremendous potential to leverage blockchain and truly exhibits how the technology can provide benefits across various sectors.”

Conversely, CinTech founders acknowledged:

“With this initiative, we are showcasing how digital content or assets can innovate business models by creating new revenue streams and financing sources.”

NFTs have emerged as a booming sector in the crypto ecosystem. For instance, Coca-Cola recently announced the launch of NFT collectables in the form of virtual wearables that were to be used to celebrate International Friendship Day.

Furthermore, Stoner Cats, an adult animated short series sold as NFTs, recently clogged the Ethereum network making hourly fees surged to $2.53 million because of high demand.

On the other hand, OpenSea, a popular marketplace, processed $95 million worth of NFT transactions in two days compared to the cumulative volume of $21 million recorded in the entirety of 2020.

The platform’s co-founder & CEO, Devin Finzer, acknowledged that the NFT boom was insane, given that it represented a unique application of blockchain technology.

South Korean Movie Industry Embraces NFTs by Offering Merchandise and Collectible Tickets

To attract more viewers, the movie industry in South Korea has gone a notch higher by incorporating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a marketing tool.

With NFTs taking the world by storm, the Korean movie sector has not been left out of this bandwagon since December 2021 by offering NFT merchandise and collectable tickets to a limited number of moviegoers.

For instance, Lotte Cinema and Warner Bros. gave out NFT merchandise to the first 30,000 people who purchased tickets during the release of “The Matrix Resurrections.”

A Lotte Cultureworks spokesperson said:

“All of the 30,000 NFT products were given out to the audiences. NFTs are trendy these days, so there is no reason not to do an event like this again.”

The spokesperson added that the NFT merchandise, which includes exclusive scenes of the movie and two signed posters, was sparking curiosity, thus attracting a larger audience.

NFTs are seen as a game-changer

According to Director Cho, NFTs are expected to be a stepping stone towards more revenue in the Korean movie business in the post-pandemic era. He stated:

“We anticipate NFTs to open up new possibilities in the film market, which has been stagnant due to the COVID-19.”

NEW, a film distributor, is eyeing to propel NFTs to an advanced stage, given that it announced the sale of 3,000 generative art NFTs developed using the IP address of upcoming film titled Special Delivery found on the leading NFT platform OpenSea.

With NFTs taking the form of digital images where the buyer owns the link of the image as proof of ownership, a University of Sussex expert recently opined that NFTs would be “everywhere in the future because anything requiring evidence of ownership will be an NFT”.

Bored Ape Yacht Club Enters the Movie Scene, Pairing with Coinbase

Seen as the face of the non-fungible token (NFT) market, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has entered the silver screen based on a series of animated short films called “The Degen Trilogy.”

Bored Apes will serve as characters in the film to be hosted by the new media arm at Coinbase. The crypto exchange is expanding its scope by testing the field of film production.

The first three episodes of the series will be aired at an NFT industry event called NFT.NYC is slated for June.

For consideration in the series, Bored Ape owners have been asked to submit their apes together with character descriptions to be scrutinized by a Hollywood casting director.

William Swann, the marketing director at Coinbase, noted:

“You can think of this as a love letter to the NFT tech that has provided so much creative liberation for artists. We really look at (Bored Apes) as sort of our North Star in the NFT space. They’ve created such a massive and engaging community.”

Upon release, the Coinbase website will serve as the gateway to accessing the films because viewers will be required to create a Coinbase wallet.

The series will also tie in with the launch of Coinbase’s NFT marketplace, according to Swann.

He added that the Bored Apes would not be the only NFTs aired on the big screen because Mutant Apes by Yuga Labs, the blockchain startup behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, would get similar treatment.

Nicole Muniz, Yuga Labs CEO, stated:

“We’re seeing how NFTs are evolving to be vehicles of access and participation in networks, games, merchandise and now interactive entertainment. This is a breakthrough project and we’re excited to see how this shapes the future of Web 3 for all communities.”

Meanwhile, Yuga Labs raised funds worth $450 million in March. As a result, the funds effectively placed the blockchain startup at a $4 billion valuation. The team aimed to inject the funds into building a media empire that would predominantly feature NFTs.

This fundraising came days after Yuga Labs unveiled a metaverse project dubbed the “Otherside”. The teaser featured an animated Bored Ape NFT smoking Tobacco in what appeared to be a metaverse-themed world.

The Bored Ape made connections with other Yuga Labs-backed NFT collections housed in what looked like a spaceship.

“Warriors of Future” Set to Debut as Asia’s First NFT Blockbuster Movie

Warriors of Future, a multi-million-dollar Hong Kong sci-fi action movie by One Cool Group, seeks to be the first Asian blockbuster film to feature a non-fungible token (NFT) collection.

The NFT collection will have 10,000 unique 3D avatars comprising four types of soldiers and is expected to be minted on August 6. It will also be powered on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.

Warriors of Future will adopt an innovative interchangeable mechanism in the NFT collection, allowing users to interchange traits within the NFTs they hold.

The interchangeable parts include the background, helmet, arms, armour body, and weapon. The report noted:

“These interchangeable elements will be reflected in real-time in the NFT marketplace. The holder will also be able to use their NFT in action as an avatar in the upcoming Warriors of Future mobile game.”

The Warriors of Future is a film set in the future, whereby the Earth is devoid of life because of pollution and climate change. Nevertheless, a meteorite brings extraterrestrial life to the planet. The movie is expected to be theatrically released in Asia this year, having taken six years to produce.

Ella Wong, the Chief Financial Officer of One Coo Group, pointed out:

“We are so excited to unlock the limitless potential of the entertainment industry powered by blockchain for our next-gen users. Our upcoming film titled Warriors of Future serves as a pioneer in such a collaboration, which allows us to explore more possibilities in the future.”

“We look forward to connecting the best of the entertainment industry in ways and experiences that were not possible before,” he added.

Through the partnership between One Cool Group and Gusto Collective, Warriors of Future NFT seeks to be the first series of a long-term Web3 and entertainment IPs’ integration projects.

Aaron Lau, the founder and CEO of Gusto Collective, stated:

“Web3 is the future of entertainment. It’s a game-changer with a vision for a more open, decentralized, and secure internet, enabled by advances in technologies like blockchain and machine learning. The emerging concept of ownership of digital assets has immense potential.”

Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) revealed plans to offer licensed exchanges the chance to trade NFTs earlier this year.