Original One-Hour Dramatization, Including Full Cast, Elaborate Sound Design and Music Score, Commemorates 100th Anniversary of World War I Christmas Eve TruceAvailable as a Free Download at Audible.com

 

NEWARK, N.J., Dec 18, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Audible, Inc., the world’s largest seller and producer of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word content, today announced the release of an original, one-hour audio drama that vividly imagines and reenacts the famous, impromptu Christmas Eve truce declared by rank-and-file British and German soldiers in 1914. Written exclusively for Audible by two-time Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and journalist Charles Olivier, Christmas Eve, 1914 features a full cast of accomplished actors including Xander Berkeley, Damon Herriman, Cody Fern, Nate Jones and Cameron Daddo. Christmas Eve, 1914 is available as a free download at www.audible.com/christmas.

 

“The Christmas Eve truce of 1914 remains an incredibly poignant and inspiring moment in our collective history, when men even in the midst of battle agreed to stop fighting for a few hours,” said Audible EVP and Publisher Beth Anderson. “The performance by this talented ensemble of actors takes listeners right into the trenches, bringing this remarkable story to life for a new generation. We’re happy to make this transporting, beautifully produced recording available free.”

 

“You wouldn’t think that a story from WWI would be either joyous or tender. And yet, it was here that one of the most remarkable moments in human history occurred,” said Olivier. “It’s one of those events that defy a writer’s imagination, and having the opportunity to tell a bit of this story has been a gift.”

 

Olivier added, “We created audio cinema with our story—this is a movie for your imagination.” Olivier and his films have been recognized at the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival, among others. Christmas Eve, 1914 was produced for Audible Studios by Dawn Prestwich, most recently executive producer of AMC’s The Killing.

 

Christmas Eve, 1914 also features a bonus track at the end of the story, the traditional French carol “Il est Né” performed by Tom Tom Club.

 

Other original works recently released by Audible include New York Times best-selling author Jeffery Deaver’s audio drama The Starling Project, performed by Alfred Molina and a full cast; The Child, a multicast dramatization based on an internationally best-selling thriller by German crime writer Sebastian Fitzek; and The Pillars of Reality, the first in a six-book epic fantasy series by New York Times best-selling author Jack Campbell.

 

Among the acclaimed actors who have performed works of literature for Audible are Dan Stevens, Dustin Hoffman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kate Winslet, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. 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 Colin 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 2013, Audible members downloaded an average of more than 17 books over the course of a year, the equivalent of close to 600 million listening hours.

 

ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.

Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary AMZN, -0.06% 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 180,000 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.

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