PEN PALS: Many fashion brands aim for campaigns that are cinematic. Montblanc went all the way and hired filmmaker Wes Anderson, who does an encore with a new “Let’s Write” short film debuting Thursday evening on its digital platforms.

Anderson corralled frequent collaborators including actors Rupert Friend, Michael Cera and Waris Ahluwalia playing “eccentric mountaineers” at the fictional montblanc Observatory High-Mountain Library, described as a “surreal, snowbound world perched above the clouds.”

Emerging actor Esther McGregor rounds out the cast, with Roman Coppola as producer and codirector, and Milena Canonero as costume designer.

“Anderson’s style defies traditional notions of luxury storytelling,” asserted Stephanie Radl, Montblanc’s global director of brand relations and communications. “By disarming audiences, it encourages them to interact with the brand very differently… The maison is about inspiring creativity in all its forms and finding new original ways to tell stories.”

In his first film for the brand for its centenary year 2024, Anderson found ways to plug the iconic Meisterstück; his own pen design, dubbed the Scribbler; the Hamburg-based firm’s leather goods and watches, and its connections to the culture of writing.

According to the brand, in Anderson’s hands, “Montblanc becomes a stage for unbridled imagination and playful absurdity,” along with dollops of wry humor.

“We have found the perfect narrator,” according to Montblanc’s artistic director Marco Tomasetta. “The campaign aims to generate a different kind of emotion that customers can experience at every touch point possible, reawakening their curiosity for writing and inspiring them to put pen to paper.”

The campaign-2 also extends to stills photographed by Charlie Gray and featuring a wider cast of brand ambassadors drenched in the same warm, retro colors Anderson favors.