CAA Onboards the Cool Cats NFT Collection

 As we see greater and greater merging of the NFT concept with the entertainment industry, we’ve finally seen a high-profile sign-up to CAA enter the space. Brandon Blake, the entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang, has more news.


Brandon Blake

Cool Cats NFT Collection

Who are Cool Cats, anyway? It’s the operational name for an NFT collection that’s attracted some high-profile Hollywood interest, including ownership by Reese Witherspoon, Marc Benioff and Alexis Ohanian. It was launched, however, on the Ethereum blockchain almost a year ago by Colin Egan, Evan Luza, Tom Williamson and Rob Mehew. Offering 9,999 avatars for purchase, it has pulled in a quarter of a million dollars over the time period.


What do purchasers get for their investment? A non-exclusive right to use the characters, currently. This means the collection retains the rights to use them in new projects. 

Signing with CAA

On the back of this success, they have now officially signed with CAA. Now, the Cool Cat producers- including their spin-off collection, Cool Pets- will be hoping to extend the reach of their NFT avatars throu
gh animated content, licensing and merchandise deals, live events, publishing, and, of course, brand partnerships. 


In short, it’s looking to turn a standard NFT into something with lucrative derivatives. This makes it one of the first large-scale intrusions into Hollywood from the newer tech. This goal represents something of a drift from the original blockchain-focused thrust of NFTs. It also would make it one of the first (but not the last, no doubt) instances of leveraging an NFT-based IP for greater market saturation.


It’s a space that’s beginning to insert itself into the wider Hollywood landscape, as content producers look for ways to expand beyond a purchasable jpg into a wider reaching way to engage with fans but retain different, often expanded, creative control over the use of their products. While this may be the first relatively high-profile sign-up we’ve seen, it’s not likely to be the last, so it’s worth watching this space as it develops. 

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