DURANGO — Hotels in southwest Colorado are competing to be featured in a new movie about gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson that will be filmed next summer.

The Durango Herald reports that five hotels in Durango, Silverton and Telluride are being considered for Bobby Kennedy III’s movie “Freak Power,” which will follow the story of Thompson’s 1970 unsuccessful campaign to become sheriff of Pitkin County. Thompson died in 2005 in Woody Creek.

Stephani Burditt, office manager for Region 9 Economic Development of Southwest Colorado, said the movie’s production team wants to mimic the Hotel Jerome in Aspen as it looked in the 1970s.

The Jerome underwent so many renovations that it was deemed unsuitable for the movie.

“They (the film’s production team) specifically had asked for a hotel that would look like the Hotel Jerome in the 1970s that is located in Aspen,” said Burditt.

She told the Herald that the production called looking for referrals, so her office suggested five locations around southwest Colorado: the Diamond Belle Saloon, the General Palmer Hotel and the Strater Hotel in Durango; the Grand Imperial Hotel in Silverton; and the New Sheridan Hotel in Telluride.

Burditt said the department has not heard back, but added that it’s likely the team will send out location scouts within the next couple of weeks.