This holiday season may be more relaxing than entertaining with iconic Southern drawl Jimmy Stewart returning with a new bedtime story on the Calm mental health app.
The late legendary star of the holiday classic ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ comes back to life thanks to artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, in a deal with Beverly Hills-based CMG Worldwide, Calm announced it would bring back Stewart to narrate “It’s a Wonderful Sleep Story.”
Calling it a tale of love, loss and hope, Calm said, “Calm users can fall asleep to the soothing, iconic voice of the late, beloved Jimmy Stewart.”
The collaboration was made possible using the generative AI voice platform from Ukraine-based AI developer Respeecher.
Jimmy Stewart’s family and estate, managed by CMG Worldwide, have agreed to participate in the project. Other iconic “clients” of CMG Worldwide include Rebel Without a Cause starring James Dean and Natalie Wood, Bettie Page, Clark Gable, Christopher Reeves, Flip Wilson and Hedy Lamarr;
“In all of these cases, we work with each of these areas and use technology to determine what makes the most sense, and it’s typically a case-by-case conversation,” said Travis Cloyd, CMG vice president and CTO. decryption. “There are many risk factors. What platform do we use? What type of content does someone like Hedy Lamarr talk about? Or what type of content would she be into? Those decisions are then made by the right stakeholders.”
Cloyd, a futurist and senior fellow at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management, is also CEO of CMG Worldwide XR, CMG’s virtual reality division. Noting the complexity of creating digital content of this nature, Cloyd said the process varies depending on the medium or experience requested, from deep fakes or 2D films to immersive 3D experiences, depending on the campaign objectives.
“Calm is an amazing platform and media company. There’s an opportunity to offer content with recognizable voice synthesis, just like you would a movie or documentary on a platform like Netflix or Amazon. And Jimmy Stewart is a very recognizable voice.” Cloyd added. .
Born in 1908, Stewart was known for his warm-spoken tone and “everyman” roles in films such as Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), and Vertigo (1958). Stewart was also a veteran who served in the U.S. Army and Air Force. In 1959, he was promoted to brigadier general. Stewart passed away in 1997.
“We are always exploring new technologies and new methods to continue the legacy of all the groups we work with,” Cloyd said. “Sometimes the family that lives on the property is not interested in pursuing this type of technology or using AI for anything, and sometimes the family that lives on the property is very optimistic about it.”
Stewart’s return is thanks to AI, but Calm features real and still-living actors, including Matthew McConaughey, Peaky Blinders and Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy, Star Trek’s Lavar Burton, Harriet’s Cynthia Erivo and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty star Idris. It also provides stories. Elba.
In October, Reespecher teamed up with Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red (CDPR) to reprise the voice of Ripperdoc Viktor Vektor from Phantom Liberty, after voice actor Miłogost “Milek” Reczek passed away in 2021.
As with Stewart’s voice, Reczek’s family allowed CDPR to use AI to perform the actor once again.
A CD Projekt Red representative previously said, “Miłek’s sons were very supportive and allowed us to move forward with the project.” decryption.
Last month, legendary rock band The Beatles released their “last song,” ‘Now and Then’, featuring the AI-generated voices and musical styles of John Lennon, George Harrison, and the band’s surviving member, Paul McCartney. And Ringo Starr.
Studios are using AI to resurrect dead celebrities, but the response isn’t always positive.
Last October, gamers protested the use of AI by Embark Studios, creators of first-person shooter ‘The Finals’.
“The reason we’re taking this route is because text-to-speech is finally so powerful,” Andreas Almström, audio director at Embark Studios, said in an episode of the Meet the Makers podcast. “This allows us to move up enough in terms of quality and be extremely responsive to new ideas and keep things really fresh.”
