When stars align, artistic perfection happens
What does one get when 65 talented actors, spanning TV, film, animation and video games, join forces to create an audiobook? In short—magic! Then blend into the mix cinematic sound effects and original musical scores by award-winning producers and composers. The end result is one of the largest and highest quality audiobook productions soon to be released.
Touted as a “vivid movie of the mind” by AudioFile Magazine and “compelling and believable” by Booklist, Battlefield Earth fans have been eagerly awaiting the unabridged edition of Hubbard’s epic post-apocalyptic SF novel, slated for an early June 2016 release. Their wait will be well rewarded.
The director of this monumental undertaking is Jim Meskimen, an accomplished actor, improviser and voice artist whose work is well-known to TV and film audiences. When asked about this project, he stated, “I was a fan of Battlefield Earth since it was released in hardback in the 80’s. I remember reading it on the subway in New York, where I was living at the time, and missing my stops a lot, so drawn in was I by the story! I had read it about four or five times by the time I was engaged to direct the audiobook, and consider it a great honor to be able to husband this story in this form.”
Battlefield Earth audiobook Earphone Award
The 47½ hour long audiobook has already started garnering awards, such as AudioFile Magazine’s coveted Earphones Award to L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth audiobook.
The multi-talented actors, producers and sound engineers who created this masterpiece audiobook accepted their trophies and plaques at a red carpet event held in Hollywood at our Galaxy Press headquarters.
For a glimpse into the gifted artistry which laid the foundation for this audiobook, we’ve highlighted some of the talent here (in alphabetical sequence.)
R.F. Daley is known not only for his work on Broadway and as a producer, but also for his work in voice over, movies and TV. Some of his recent credits include the movies Bridesmaids and Vacation.
Charles Gideon Davis is an actor and producer, known for Wilder Napalm, Justice League Heroes and Power Rangers Wild Force: Identity Crisis.
Larrs Jackson started his career in the entertainment industry with The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, That Girl and The Dick Van Dyke Show. He worked with Garry Marshall in several movies such as Beaches with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey and Nothing in Common with Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason.
Gregory Lee Kenyon is an actor and director, known for Demonicus, Ghost Lake and Doberman. His voice skills include dialects from British and Irish to Southern, Northeast and Australian.
Jim Meskimen is known throughout the industry for his professionalism and wide range of talents. He is an American stand-up comedian, actor, impressionist, voice artist and comedian. He is also known for his work on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Phil Proctor is an American actor, voice actor and a member of The Firesign Theatre. He plays Rocky Rococo and Nancy in the Nick Danger series, attended Yale University, where he contributed to campus humor magazine The Yale Record, and had voice roles in Pixar films, including Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo.
Stefan Rudnicki has recorded over 3,500 audio books and has won a Grammy (Best Children’s Album, 1999–The Children’s Shakespeare), a Bram Stoker Award (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream), a Ray Bradbury Award (The NPR dramatic series 2000X), more than a dozen Audie Awards and has directed over 150 stage productions in New York, Los Angeles, regional theatre & abroad, and produced around triple that number. He has directed two feature films, produced hundreds of audiobooks, and is author of 11 published books.
Mark Silverman, an accomplished actor, is also known for the Voice of Rod Serling in The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. In promoting his voice appearance as Rod Serling in Medium: Still Life (2005), NBC said that he “is the only voice artist recognized by the Serling estate.”
Roger Steffens’ stage experience includes the Pittsburgh Playhouse, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and his one-man show, Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry which was performed to over two million people from 1966 to 1976 and was used as the basis of TV series 1968–69 Armed Forces Vietnam Network. He is a Brooklyn, New York born actor, author, lecturer, editor, reggae archivist, photographer, and producer. Roger is perhaps best known for his reggae archives, in particular his archives of Bob Marley.
Brian Vibberts is a multiple Grammy Award winner who evolved in audio production at a time when analog equipment was still used for the majority of recording and mixing. With the continuous evolution of recording and mixing technologies, he has built a career with the best of both worlds—analog and digital. In combination with his experience in the music industry, a high-quality final product is guaranteed.
Paul Wertheimer is a scoring recordist whose works has covered everything from Free Willy and Mr. and Mrs. Smith to Star Trek–Generations and First Contact. The Rock, on which Mr. Wertheimer worked as music recordist, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing at the 69th Academy Awards.
Michael Yurchack is an award winning actor, voice talent, and teaching artist. He has appeared in multiple films including The Babymakers, with Olivia Munn and Paul Schneider, I Heart Shakey, with Steve Guttenberg and Beverly D’Angelo, Watching the Detectives, starring Lucy Liu and Cillian Murphy, The Lather Effect, starring Eric Stolz and Connie Britton, and Broken Lizard’s Beerfest.
Rick Zieff is an American actor and voice-over coach in Los Angeles. His career in voice-overs dates back to the mid-1980s. He has also appeared in such films as Mississippi Burning, Nick of Time and Terminator 3. In Los Angeles, “Rick Zieff’s Unbelievably Fun Voice-over Class” is extremely popular, and he is a guest panelist at many popular L.A. workshops.
The long-awaited release of the audiobook Battlefield Earth is scheduled for June 2016.
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