Audible, Inc., the world’s largest seller and producer of downloadable
audiobooks and other spoken-word content, today announced the release of
James Thurber’s classic story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,”
narrated by Ben Stiller. The audio edition, which is part of a
partnership between Audible and 20th Century Fox in support
of Fox’s forthcoming theatrical release, includes commentary by Stiller
at the end of the recording and is available free at www.audible.com/Mitty.
“We’re delighted to offer our listeners, as well as anyone who loves a
good story well told, this whimsical tale performed with great panache
by Ben Stiller,” said Audible EVP and Publisher Beth Anderson. “Walter
Mitty’s imagination famously transports him away from the quotidian
details of life, and we like to think that’s exactly what Audible helps
our customers to do every day.”
Anderson added, “Everyone who’s excited to see the new film version of The
Secret Life of Walter Mitty will first want to revisit Thurber’s
classic, reinvigorated by Stiller’s interpretation of the text.”
“When we had the opportunity to collaborate with Audible on this
exciting program, we knew it was a perfect way to introduce the rapidly
growing number of Audible customers to the original short story as well
as the amazing film that Ben has created,” said Zachary Eller, Senior
Vice President, Marketing Partnerships, 20th Century Fox. “Ben’s
recording of the short story is fantastic and demonstrates his passion
for the brilliant source material.”
Stiller’s much-anticipated film version of The Secret Life of Walter
Mitty, co-starring Kristen Wiig, opens in theaters nationwide on
December 25.
“We all have our own secret life, and that’s what’s made the story so
classic,” said Stiller.
The most famous of humorist Thurber’s stories, “The Secret Life of
Walter Mitty” was first published in The New Yorker in 1939. The
story is among the most widely anthologized in American literature.
Among the acclaimed actors who have performed works of literature for
Audible are Anne Hathaway, Bryan Cranston, Claire Danes, Colin Firth,
Diane Keaton, Dustin Hoffman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kate Winslet and Samuel
L. Jackson. In 2013, Audible Studios won its first Grammy Award, for its
production of Janis Ian’s memoir Society’s Child, and also won
the Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year, for Firth’s performance of
Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair.
Audible invented and commercialized the first digital audio player in
1997, and has since been at the forefront of the explosively growing
audiobook download segment. In 2012, Audible members downloaded an
average of 18 books over the course of a year.
About the film—THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY
Comedy-Adventure
Release: December 25, 2013
Director: Ben Stiller
Screen Story and Screenplay by: Steve Conrad; Based upon the short story
by James Thurber
Producers: Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., John Goldwyn, Stuart Cornfeld, Ben
Stiller
Cast: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Shirley MacLaine, Adam Scott, Kathryn
Hahn, Patton Oswalt, and Sean Penn
Ben Stiller directs and stars in THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, James
Thurber’s classic story of a daydreamer who escapes his anonymous life
by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance
and action. When his job along with that of his co-worker (Kristen Wiig)
are threatened, Walter takes action in the real world, embarking on a
global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than
anything he could have ever imagined.
ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.
Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com,
Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium
digital spoken audio information and entertainment on the Internet,
offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every
day. Audible’s mission is to establish literate listening as a core tool
for anyone seeking to be more productive, better informed, or more
thoughtfully entertained. Audible content includes more than 150,000
audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters,
entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business
information providers. Audible is also the preeminent provider of
spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes® Store.
Copyright Business Wire 2013