What celebrity would you most like to read you a bedtime story? Would you prefer the British stylings of Idris Elba, the Australian lilt of Nicole Kidman or the charming monotone of Keanu Reeves? Soon, you’ll have access to all of them, or the closest thing to it.
This week, HBO Max announced it is producing A World of Calm, a new ten-part series based on the Calm app, which consistently ranks among the top downloads in the meditation, sleep and relaxation space. According to a press release, the show is inspired by the app’s Sleep Stories series, which offers bedtime stories for adults, and will “[transport] the viewer into tranquility through scientifically-engineered narratives, enchanting music and astounding footage, to naturally calm your body and soothe the mind.”
However, the main selling point is the people who will be narrating along with the so-called “mesmeric imagery,” a high-profile list that includes Elba, Kidman and Reeves, as well as Mahershala Ali, Oscar Isaac, Zoë Kravitz, Lucy Liu and Cillian Murphy.
“HBO is working on its new show in collaboration with Nutopia, the team behind Nat Geo’s series One Strange Rock and Disney+’s The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” Gizmodo noted.
Obviously, as HBO made clear in the announcement, this project is a direct result of the stress Americans, and people around the world, are experiencing from the times we live in. Calm co-founder and co-CEO Michael Acton Smith even went so far as to call the new show “visual Valium.”
There’s no release date announced, so for now you’ll have to make do with Stephen Fry.
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