The sprawling nature of Homer’s epic “Odyssey” poem makes it understandable why a Hollywood studio would shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to bring it to life on the screen. But in ElevenLabs‘ AI audiobook version, all it requires is four producers, several AI tools and a replica voice of Christopher Nolan stalwart Michael Caine.
The AI audio firm is using Caine’s voice to anchor a new, roughly 13-hour version of “The Odyssey” weeks before Nolan’s upcoming film hits theaters. Released on Tuesday through the company’s ElevenReader audiobook app, the new audiobook version was created entirely by AI tools, including voices on ElevenLabs’ voice library along with sounds and a score generated through the firm’s music generator. The firm hopes the AI audiobook serves as a complement to Nolan’s film, one that lets readers catch up on the source material ahead of Nolan’s epic.
“Our version of it is another retelling of it that we think is really strong — it does justice,” Dustin Blank, ElevenLabs’ head of partnerships, told Variety in a recent interview. “It has a cast of 20 characters, all from our voice library, and Michael Caine is a legend. He is a national treasure, and his voice means so much to so many people, and we thought that he, as the narrator, would be the perfect person to help tell this story for his part in it, and I think he does.”
Caine’s affiliation with ElevenLabs isn’t new, as the Oscar winner licensed his voice and likeness last year to the firm’s “Iconic Marketplace,” its collection of characters that companies can pay to use for commercial purposes. But this partnership expands the arrangement, one Blank said is rooted in “consent and compensation.” ElevenLabs pays creators every time their voices are used in ElevenReader, and in Caine’s case, he was specifically consulted about the project and approved the marketing materials, Blank said. (Whether he’s heard the final project, however, couldn’t be determined.)
“The Odyssey is one of the greatest stories ever told. For nearly three millennia, its themes of perseverance, loyalty, temptation, and the enduring call of home have resonated across cultures and generations,” Caine said in a statement. “By bridging classical storytelling with digital innovation, this timeless epic is reimagined for modern audiences, brought vividly to life through ElevenReader’s cutting-edge technology. It was a pleasure to be a part of ElevenProductions retelling of The Odyssey.”
The “Odyssey” experiment follows a previous synergetic effort last year, when ElevenLabs’ replica of Judy Garland’s voice narrated “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” the day “Wicked: For Good” released. The company hopes the effort allows for more large-scale audiobook productions to emerge, contending that AI allows for more immersive audio experiences that traditional publishers would find too expensive. The four producers on the project were responsible for producing the full project — including the audio dubs across languages, the music and the score – over six weeks.
“It’s a very small team for what this is, which is a … very immersive audiobook production,” Madeline Shue, part of ElevenLabs’ publisher partnerships team, told Variety. “[It was] previously not possible to do that type of work with a small team and a short timeline.”
ElevenLabs sees — or, would like to see — a world where users could create their own projects involving characters licensed on the company’s Iconic Marketplace, such as the suite of characters from Hasbro’s chest of intellectual property or even the personas of Stan Lee and Judy Garland. But, Blank cautioned, “we’re not going to do AI just to do AI,” and the company hasn’t discussed such cases with the rightsholders yet.
“We’re going to set the bar high,” Blank said. “We want to provide amazing experiences for the users. I think that in terms of partnerships, it is an ambition to be working with incredible IP.”
English (US) ·