Let me call...

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

In Episode 6 of “Let Me Call,” my guest is Neal Baer, an award-winning showrunner, television writer/producer, physician, author, and public health advocate. His impressive list of shows includes ER, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Designated Survivor, among others. From AI to creative approaches, join us for this enlightening phone call!

On Episode 6 Valentina reaches John Attanasio the CEO and cofounder of Toonstar, an interactive story studio building entertainment franchises through community-driven storytelling.  Before launching Toonstar, he spent over a decade at Warner Bros. and DreamWorks developing franchise properties. 

The topic is AI in Hollywood.

On Episode 5, Valentina Martelli bring the question asked by Kevin Goetz to Matteo Perale, Matteo Perale. Matteo is a serial Entrepreneur, Investor and media executive.  Recently he was a cofounder of CAA backed multi award winning studio wiip, then successfully sold to Korean Media conglomerate JTBC. 

Welcome back to Let Me Call, the podcast that explores the latest industry developments in entertainment and technology all within the span of a friendly phone call! On today's episode, host Valentina Martelli interviews Kevin Goetz, Founder and CEO at Screen Engine/ASI, bestselling author of Audience-ology, and host of the hit podcast Don't Kill the Messenger. Tune in to hear his answer to our previous guest's question about content algorithms, his philosophy on the power of the audience, and his predictions for the future of financing within entertainment.

On episode 2 of “Let Me Call,” host Valentina Martelli speaks to Andrea Scorsati, the COO of Fremantle Group and the CEO of Fremantle Europe. Scorsati responds to previous guest David Eilenberg’s question about the future of live television events, sheds light on the strategy behind Fremantle’s recent acquisition of Asacha Media Group, addresses how streaming has transformed the entertainment industry, and more. Finally, he poses a burning question about algorithms for next episode’s guest. Listen in on this call for invaluable advice from a true media mogul.