Well-known actor, filmmaker and comedian Kevin Smith will release his new film "Killroy Was Here" as a non-fungible token (NFT) in collaboration with SCRT Labs - an Israeli development team behind Secret Network’s Legendao platform.

The film is a comedy-horror anthology centered on the wildly-memed graffiti art "Kilroy was here," which was popularized during World War II. Viewers will also be able to watch commentary and behind-the-scenes footage from Smith, who wrote and directed the film.

This is the first time that a new movie will be released as a secret NFT, and will be produced by View Askew Productions and SModcast Pictures, two production companies founded by Smith. 

The start-ups involved and background

“This release is made possible by Secret Network’s Legendao NFT technology, which ensures that the NFT content can only be accessed by the owner themselves,” said SCRT Labs CEO Guy Zyskind. SCRT Labs also stated that this will showcase the capabilities of what NFTs can offer in a rapidly-changing entertainment industry.

This news follows the development team's collaboration with filmmaker Quentin Tarantino in January, who has been living in Tel Aviv and is married to Israeli singer Daniella Pick. The Pulp Fiction director had his first NFT sold at an auction for $1.1 million that was comprised of a handwritten scene from Tarantino’s original screenplay of the classic 1994 flick, SCRT Labs announced. It is one of a few NFTs that was sold on Secret Network.

Each NFT in the collection has a single iconic scene and is provided with commentary by Tarantino.

Quentin Tarantino with Guy & Nir Zyskind (credit: Corey Sipkin)
Quentin Tarantino with Guy & Nir Zyskind (credit: Corey Sipkin)
“Digital sharing and streaming no doubt revolutionized the entertainment industry, but they also caused piracy issues and profit loss for creators,” Zyskind continued. “Through partnerships like ours with Smith and Tarantino, Legendao can work alongside creators to develop projects that they can share without losing ownership." The SCRT Labs CEO also stated that NFTs will better connect artists and creators to their fans as well as more control of their work.

Legendao is currently growing to be a hub for high-quality NFT drops - and also where the film will be launched as a 5,555-piece generative art NFT collection. Powered by Secret Network, Legendao is also a launchpad for top artists, brands and NFT creators to create their own NFT projects. With Secret Network as the first blockchain with privacy by default, NFTs distributed by Legendao ensure that only the owners can decrypt its contents.

Director's comments

“When you buy the KillRoy NFT, you get exclusive access to the movie,” said Kevin Smith. “But more importantly, the specific version of Kilroy you get is YOUR KillRoy to do with whatever you want.

"Make your own movie, turn it into a cartoon, license him for lunchboxes! We started the story, now YOU get to continue it with your very own version of our titular character," he continued.

Smith also stated that he will be shooting a new chapter and making several animation shorts of Killroy. He describes the whole journey that fans can go on "from art collector to collaborating artist" using NFTs.

SCRT Labs CEO Guy Zyskind. (credit: NIR ZYSKIND)
SCRT Labs CEO Guy Zyskind. (credit: NIR ZYSKIND)
Smith first announced the release of his film as an NFT last year, where he is "not trying to raise financing by selling NFTs for a Killroy movie; the completed Killroy movie IS the NFT," he told Deadline. If this works, we suddenly have a new stage on which I and other, better artists than me can tell our stories.”

Hannah Brown contributed to this report.