After securing Hollywood A-listers, Stoner Cats NFT Series pulled in Vitalik Buterin to join its cast. The 27-year old Canadian program is the creator of Ethereum which currently sits at a $273 Billion, Market Cap. This move definitely adds some crypto star power to the animated web series produced by Mila Kunis.
The cast also includes Jane Fonda, Chris Rock and Ashton Kutcher.
Vitalik Buterin Steps into the Spotlight as “Catsington”
Fresh off his successful Ethereum documentary which raised over 1036 ETH or $1.9 Million, Buterin will lend his voice to Catsington. He plays a taxidermied, monocle-sporting cat who advises the five living cats belonging to one of the leads. Ms. Stoner is a spunky octogenarian with Alzheimer’s, whose magical strain of weed has somehow given her feline companions the ability to talk.
Morgan Beller, a general partner at venture firm NFX and a team member behind “Stoner Cats,” shared a bit of production BTS. He said that though he wrote the script before Buterin joined the cast, he tweaked the role of Catsington to fit his personality better. He adds, “He doesn’t like cursing and his character said ‘f**k’ a few times, so he asked if they could change that and they were accommodating,”
Stoner Cats: Let’s talk about numbers
Aside from the storyline, NFTs also power the commercial side of the series. Viewers need to purchase NFTs in order to watch the first five-minute episode. Additionally, these tokens represent a digital artwork of a randomly created character from the show. Ultimately, the NFTs functions as a ticket to unlock all available “Stoner Cats” episodes. The NFTs will sell for about $750 or 0.35 ETH.
The series aims to promote crypto using non-crypto people that the non-tech-savvy crowd can relate to and identify with. The team members are expected to lead by example. So the entire cast, including Buterin, will be paid in Ether. Beller shared, “We had to teach Jane Fonda how to set up a MetaMask wallet.”
Each cast member will be paid an equal amount, depending on the project’s level of funding at its initial NFT launch. To finish the season, the “Stoner Cats” team needs to reach at least 50% of its 10,420 NFT funding goal.
Beller shared that even if the project is fully funded at approximately $7.5 Million, it will still be a pay cut for the casts. This means that they would only be making about half of what they would make on an equivalent, traditionally funded project. Thus, they are really in it for the cause.
Crypto Crowdfunding
Crypto crowdfunding is an emerging trend in entertainment NFT projects. One of the benefits of NFTs to content creators is the ability to be their own distribution channel without relying on intermediaries such as record labels and film outfits. Crypto crowdfunding is an extension of this benefit because now, production houses won’t have control over which movies or series will be available in the market. The community has full power and control thanks to NFTs.
The latest media project to adopt crypto crowdfunding is The Minimints. Dubbed as the world’s first NFT Cartoon Series, the show offers 10,000 unique 3D characters as NFTs. It is purely community-driven, meaning NFT holders have a say on the script, traits and storyline of their NFT characters.
Celebrities were quick to jump on NFTs during its feverish boom. Let’s see if crypto crowdfunding in the film and TV industry will also enjoy the same pace and momentum.
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