ElevenLabs Drops AI 'Odyssey' Audiobook With Caine Voice
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- ElevenLabs released a ~13-hour AI-generated "Odyssey" audiobook on Tuesday via its ElevenReader app, narrated by a replica of Michael Caine's voice and featuring a cast of 20 AI characters from the company's voice library.
- Michael Caine licensed his voice and likeness to ElevenLabs' Iconic Marketplace last year; for this project he was specifically consulted and approved the marketing materials, though whether he has heard the final product could not be confirmed.
- Four producers built the entire audiobook — including multilingual audio dubs, music, and score — in six weeks, a scale ElevenLabs says would be too expensive for traditional publishers.
- Dustin Blank, ElevenLabs' head of partnerships, framed the project as a complement to Nolan's film, telling Variety: "Our version of it is another retelling of it that we think is really strong."
- ElevenLabs replicated the Judy Garland–narrated "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" audiobook last year to coincide with the release of "Wicked: For Good," and Blank said future projects could draw on Hasbro IP, Stan Lee, and other licensed personas — though no rights-holder talks have occurred yet.
Why it matters: ElevenLabs is positioning AI audiobooks as a low-cost complement to major studio releases, using celebrity voice replicas licensed through its Iconic Marketplace to produce in weeks what traditional publishers say is too expensive. The model hands Caine — and potentially other rights-holders like Hasbro or the Garland estate — a new revenue stream while letting ElevenLabs control the pipeline from voice library to finished production.
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