{"id":757577,"date":"2026-06-24T07:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/757577\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T07:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:08:18","slug":"michael-caines-voice-to-narrate-ai-odyssey-audiobook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/757577\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Caine’s Voice to Narrate AI ‘Odyssey’ Audiobook"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe sprawling nature of Homer\u2019s epic \u201cOdyssey\u201d poem\u00a0makes 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<\/a>\u2018 AI audiobook version, all it requires is four producers, several AI tools and a replica voice of Christopher Nolan stalwart Michael Caine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe AI audio firm is using Caine\u2019s voice to anchor a new, roughly 13-hour version of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d\u00a0weeks before Nolan\u2019s upcoming film hits theaters. Released on Tuesday through the company\u2019s ElevenReader audiobook app, the new audiobook version was created entirely by AI tools, including voices on ElevenLabs\u2019 voice library along with sounds and a score generated through the firm\u2019s music generator. The firm hopes the AI audiobook serves as a complement to Nolan\u2019s film, one that lets readers catch up on the source material ahead of Nolan\u2019s epic.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur version of it is another retelling of it that we think is really strong \u2014\u00a0it does justice,\u201d\u00a0Dustin Blank, ElevenLabs\u2019 head of partnerships, told Variety in a recent interview. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCaine\u2019s affiliation with ElevenLabs isn\u2019t new, as the Oscar winner licensed<\/a> his voice and likeness last year to the firm\u2019s \u201cIconic Marketplace,\u201d\u00a0its collection of characters that companies can pay to use for commercial purposes. But this partnership expands the arrangement, one Blank said is rooted in \u201cconsent and compensation.\u201d\u00a0ElevenLabs pays creators every time their voices are used in ElevenReader, and in Caine\u2019s case, he was specifically consulted about the project and approved the marketing materials, Blank said. (Whether he\u2019s heard the final project, however, couldn\u2019t be determined.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe 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,\u201d\u00a0Caine said in a statement.\u00a0\u201cBy bridging classical storytelling with digital innovation, this timeless epic is reimagined for modern audiences, brought vividly to life through ElevenReader\u2019s cutting-edge technology. It was a pleasure to be a part of ElevenProductions retelling of The Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cOdyssey\u201d\u00a0experiment follows a previous synergetic effort last year, when ElevenLabs\u2019\u00a0replica of Judy Garland\u2019s voice narrated \u201cThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz\u201d\u00a0the day \u201cWicked: For Good\u201d\u00a0released. 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 \u2014\u00a0including the audio dubs across languages, the music and the score \u2013\u00a0over six weeks.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a very small team for what this is, which is a \u2026 very immersive audiobook production,\u201d Madeline Shue, part of ElevenLabs\u2019 publisher partnerships team, told Variety. \u201c[It was] previously not possible to do that type of work with a small team and a short timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tElevenLabs sees \u2014\u00a0or, would like to see \u2014\u00a0a world where users could create their own projects involving characters licensed on the company\u2019s Iconic Marketplace, such as the suite of characters from Hasbro\u2019s chest of intellectual property<\/a> or even the personas of Stan Lee and Judy Garland<\/a>. But, Blank cautioned, \u201cwe\u2019re not going to do AI just to do AI,\u201d\u00a0and the company hasn\u2019t discussed such cases with the rightsholders yet.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re going to set the bar high,\u201d\u00a0Blank said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch a trailer featuring the AI replica of Caine here:<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sprawling nature of Homer\u2019s epic \u201cOdyssey\u201d poem\u00a0makes it understandable why a Hollywood studio would shell out hundreds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,33899,47198,61],"class_list":["post-757577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-elevenlabs","tag-michael-caine","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}