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CryptoPunks, the pixelated NFT collection that helped drive 2021\u2019s NFT art craze, is now the subject of a documentary five years in the making.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Indie filmmaker Sherone Rabinovitz has been working on a CryptoPunks film since March 2018 when he sat down for an interview with the collection\u2019s founders, John Watkinson and Matt Hall. Rabinovitz released an extended trailer on Thursday for the forthcoming documentary, which contains a four-minute cut from the 2018 interview and previews the film\u2019s other themes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the trailer, Watkinson recounts creating the punks\u2019 accessories over the course of a month before launching the project. According to Watkinson, CryptoPunks weren\u2019t a finished product when they launched.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a few more things [to change] and all of a sudden it was like, \u2018Oh wait, we\u2019re kind of through a one-way door here. We deployed the contract already,\u2019\u201d Watkinson says in the 2018 interview.<\/p>\n
The trailer<\/a> goes on to nod to the cultural phenomenon that was to come just a few years later: the conferences, celebrity adoption, spinoff projects and auction house intrigue<\/a> that comprised the rise of CryptoPunks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, acquired CryptoPunks\u2019 intellectual property from Watkinson and Hall in 2022, with the pair writing<\/a> at the time that they weren\u2019t well-suited to the \u201cday-to-day management that these kinds of projects require and deserve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The CryptoPunks floor price has trended sideways since April of this year, sitting at 45.19 ether (ETH<\/a>) or around $75,000 at the time of writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rabinovitz\u2019 documentary does not yet have an official release date, and it comes as early interest in NFT-inspired films has cooled off: Coinbase\u2019s Bored Apes movie<\/a> is currently on hold, and Reese Witherspoon\u2019s partnership<\/a> with World of Women is yet to yield any releases.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rabinovitz\u2019 documentary is meant to bring CryptoPunks\u2019 story outside of the cryptosphere.<\/p>\n \u201c[W]hile many of you crypto-natives might know a bit of it, the rest of the \u201cnormie\u201d population out there *still* does not,\u201d the filmmaker wrote<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss the next big story \u2013 join our\u00a0free daily newsletter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
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