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Roman Coppola, Chloe Sevigny, Michael Pitt, Four Stories script competition announced

By April MacIntyre Aug 14, 2012, 14:48 GMT

Roman Coppola - 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival - "Moonrise Kingdom" Photocall - Palais des Festival - Cannes, France © Landmark / PR Photos

Intel and W Hotels Launch Innovative Film Series, ‘Four Stories,’ Produced and Curated by Roman Coppola and The Directors Bureau.

Intel Corporation and W Hotels Worldwide today launched “Four Stories,” a screenplay competition curated by director and screenwriter Roman Coppola and his award-winning production company, The Directors Bureau.

Starting today through Aug. 30, filmmakers can visit intel.com/fourstories to upload their original screenplays – inspired by the highly mobile, 24/7 nature of travel – for the chance to see their idea come to life on the big screen.

Three winning screenplays will be selected from a global pool of submissions by an exclusive panel of industry leaders, including Roman Coppola (The Directors Bureau), Michaelangelo L’Acqua (W Hotels global music director), Deborah Conrad (chief marketing officer at Intel), Eddy Moretti (executive producer and creative director at VICE), Michael Pitt (actor), Jeff Baena (screenwriter), Chloe Sevigny (actress), PJ Ransone (actor) and Blake Whitman (vice president of creative development at Vimeo) and Danny Gabai (agent, motion pictures for William Morris Endeavor).

From the release:

“Four Stories” is the first collaboration from The Ultrabook Experience, a new initiative from Intel that features collaborations with innovative brands, emerging and established artists, and designers and entertainers that use the Intel-inspired Ultrabook devices to do extraordinary things. Throughout 2012, The Ultrabook Experience will unveil grand- scale projects with innovators in travel, film, business and design that are using Ultrabook devices to rethink what’s possible.

Combining technology and artistry to advance the next generation of great filmmakers, “Four Stories” will be comprised of three winning scripts that will be developed and transformed by Coppola and The Directors Bureau into 10-minute shorts inspired by the intense energy of the global jet-setter, each with its own talented cast. Scripts must be set in a W Hotel, and the Intel-inspired Ultrabook must play a key role in the film. To complete the series, the fourth film will be written and directed by Roman, who most recently co-wrote Wes Anderson’s summer film, “Moonrise Kingdom.”

 “I admire W Hotels and Intel for encouraging emerging artists by giving them this chance to introduce themselves,” Coppola said. “To all those people thinking of participating, I hope that they take this opportunity to be bold, to push boundaries and to think of ideas which are totally unique to themselves. As Thomas Edison said, ‘Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.’”

The Directors Bureau, along with notable cast and winning filmmakers, will then travel to shoot the scripts at glamorous W Hotel destinations such as W Doha Hotel & Residences, W Retreat & Spa Maldives, W Mexico City and W Washington D.C. The properties, each with their own design narratives, draw in local contextual insights and unique design collaborations to create a distinctive personality. Combined with the love affair travelers have with their Ultrabook, enabling them to enjoy each connected minute on the road, the destinations will provide further inspirational backdrops – evocative of the stylish international guest.

“Four Stories” will premiere at red carpet events at select W Hotels around the world later this fall, as well as broadcast on The Ultrabook Experience website, whotels.com, the W brand’s social media channels and W Vision in-room entertainment channel.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Intel on this exciting film initiative that provides a global platform for emerging talent,” said Vincent Gillet, Global Brand Leader, W Hotels Worldwide & Le Méridien. “Like the W Hotels Designers of the Future Award and the W Hotels and burn studios DJ Lab, the “Four Stories” film series is yet another way for W to identify and support rising visionaries in their field, while showcasing what’s new and next to our global guests.”

As part of the overall collaboration between Intel and W Hotels Worldwide, high-impact Ultrabook design installations will be featured at W Hong Kong, W London-Leicester Square, W New York, W Paris-Opéra, W San Francisco and W Singapore, allowing both W guests and locals alike to interact with the latest in innovative technology. Additionally, Ultrabook devices will be integrated into the Whatever/Whenever concierge experience at all 42 W hotels and retreats worldwide, further demonstrating the marriage between technology and design to create impactful and emotional experiences.

“Today, we are in the midst of an evolution of the arts through the power of every day technology,” said Johan Jervoe, vice president of partner marketing, Intel. “A new generation of artists can bring film, music, design and art to life more easily because they no longer have to compromise. They can have one device, the Ultrabook, with both performance and portability, so they can readily share their creations at the touch of a keyboard button. We are excited to be working with W Hotels on ‘Four Stories’ as a unique platform for these rising stars to tell and share their stories globally.”