Tom Hanks, Ken Burns Team With Audible for History Audio Books
Tom Hanks has been the focus of television, film, and the Internet, but America's sweetheart is branching out to take on the burgeoning world of … audiobooks?
By Stephanie Mlot
October 21, 2013 1:08PM EST
Tom Hanks has been the focus of television, film, and the Internet, but America's sweetheart is branching out to take on the burgeoning world of … audiobooks.
Playtone, a production company from Hanks and Gary Goetzman, has partnered with Audible and documentarian Ken Burns to build a collection of audiobooks about American history.
Leading the pack of new recordings is Tim O'Brien's Pulitzer finalist The Things They Carried, a tale of Vietnam soldiers, narrated by Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston. Mega fans can order the deluxe edition, which includes O'Brien reading The Vietnam in Me, an essay published in The New York Times Magazine two decades after the author returned home from the war.
Memoirs With the Old Breed and Helmet for My Pillow — inspiration for Playtone's HBO miniseries The Pacific — are narrated by two actors from the series, Joseph Mazzello and James Badge Dale.
All three audiobooks include an introduction by Hanks.
"Our common American story is complex, inspiring, occasionally infuriating and always fascinating," he said in a statement.
The actor/director/writer's passion for American history is often displayed in his company's work — Band of Brothers, John Adams, The Pacific. But now "we will give voice to the best fiction and nonfiction ever written about America," he said.
Acclaimed director Ken Burns also hand-picked eight of his favorite historical stories, lending his voice in part to each.
"I am thrilled to introduce this collection of important books, books that span a century and a half of American history and fiction," Burns said, adding that he was asked to select audio editions "which in my view stand out as great performances, and which influenced me as a filmmaker."
All 11 audiobooks are available on Audible.com, regularly priced between $10.49 (The Warmth of Other Suns) and $48.95 (each volume of the three-part The Civil War: A Narrative). Audible members, meanwhile, can pick from Playtone's curated list to fill their allotted monthly freebies.
"For me, listening to a great audiobook can be as satisfying an experience as watching a great story unfold on film," Burns said in a statement.
Check out the full list of Playtone audiobooks below.
Audible is no stranger to Hollywood: In 2012, Audible Studios launched the "A-List Collection," a series of literature read by celebrated actors like Anne Hathaway, Claire Danes, Colin Firth, Diane Keaton, Dustin Hoffman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kate Winslet, Nicole Kidman, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Helmet for my Pillow, by Robert Leckie, narrated by James Badge Dale
With the Old Breed, by E. B. Sledge, narrated by Joseph Mazzello
The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, narrated by Bryan Cranston
The Civil War Trilogy, by Shelby Foote, narrated by Grover Gardner
The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson, narrated by Robin Miles
The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan, narrated by Patrick Lawlor
O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather, narrated by Kate Reading
The Song of the Lark, by Willa Cather, narrated by Pam Ward
My Antonia, by Willa Cather, narrated by Jeff Cummings
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Stephanie Mlot
Stephanie joined PCMag in May 2012, moving to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (in the town of Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania) with a degree in ... See Full Bio
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