Let me call...

Let me call...Vicki Dobbs Beck, VP, Immersive Content Innovation, Lucasfilm & ILM

Welcome to Episode 11. Valentina's call this time reaches VICKI DOBBS BECK a veteran entertainment executive with more than 30 years of experience driving innovation and digital transformation in support of storytelling. She was recently named one of the top 10 entertainment gaming leaders by Variety. In 2015, Vicki co-founded Lucasfilm’s award-winning Immersive Storytelling Studio, formally known as ILMxLAB, and has since been at the helm. Under Vicki’s leadership, ILM has produced a robust portfolio of groundbreaking experiences including CARNE y ARENA, directed by Alejandro Iñárritu and awarded a special Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series, winner of the PGA Innovation Award in 2020; and most recently, the Emmy award-winning “What If…? An Immersive Story” with Marvel Studios, the first-ever interactive Disney+ Original story for Apple Vision Pro.

Let me call....Anthony Batt, Co-Founder of Wevr

In Episode 10 of Let Me Call, Valentina Martelli speaks with Anthony Batt, co-founder of CO/AI, a global AI community, and part of the executive team at Wevr, an immersive production studio. This conversation follows a difficult January in Los Angeles, marked by devastating wildfires—an ordeal Batt personally experienced. Despite the loss, he joins the call to share his insights.

Let me call...Drew Buckley, Propagate Group President and Chief Operating Officer

Welcome to Episode 9 of Let Me Call. Drew Buckley, Propagate Group President and Chief Operating Officer is the guest in this new episode. Propagate is one of the industry’s most dynamic company that focuses on developing, producing, and distributing programming across various genres for different platforms but also recently started a talent representation division. Drew is the perfect person to tackle the question that novelist Donato Carrisi left us with in the last episode.

Let me call...Donato Carrisi - International bestselling novelist, screenwriter and director

Welcome to Episode 8 of “Let Me Call.”In this episode the guest is a great friend of Valentina: Donato Carrisi. His first novel Il suggeritore (The Whisperer) was published in 2009 and won several major prizes including Italy’s prestigious Bancarella prize. Donato also won the Prix Polar and Prix Livre de Poche in France. He is published in the UK by Little Brown and his novels have been translated into over thirty languages and sold millions of copies. His novel La ragazza nella nebbia (The Girl in the Fog) was turned into a major international film, starring Toni Servillo and Jean Reno and it won the David di Donatello Prize for Best Debut Director 2018.  L’uomo del labirinto (Into the Labyrinth), starring Toni Servillo and Dustin Hoffman was released in October 2019. He also directed the film from his standalone thriller Io sono l’abisso (I Am the Abyss), released in 2022. The books in his Pietro Gerber series, La casa delle voci (The House of Voices), La casa senza ricordi (The House without Memories) and La casa delle luci (The House of Lights) all went straight to no.1 in the Italian charts. His latest thriller, L’educazione delle farfalle (The education of butterflies), published in 2023, has been on top of Italian charts for 22 weeks in a row.

Let me call....Gary Marenzi, Independent strategic consultant

On Episode 7 of Let Me Call...Valentina reaches out to Gary Marenzi. Gary and Valentina have been friends since she moved to LA 20 years ago. Gary currently works as an independent strategic consultant for several international production companies and has held prestigious positions such as President of International Television at Paramount Pictures, President of the Worldwide Television Group at MGM, and head of Entertainment Sales at Endeavor Content. Don't miss this episode if you want to know Hollywood's next steps.