TheaterEars Brings The Director's Experience to 20th Century Studios' Whalefall with Commentary from Brian Duffield, Daniel Kraus and Pietro Scalia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TheaterEars Brings The Director's Experience to 20th Century Studios' Whalefall with Commentary from Director/Co-Writer/Producer Brian Duffield, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Daniel Kraus and Editor Pietro Scalia
The director/co-writer/producer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the source novel and the two-time Academy Award®-winning editor recorded a synchronized commentary for 20th Century Studios' survival thriller, free in theaters across the U.S. and Canada through the TheaterEars app beginning Friday October 23rd.
BURBANK, Calif. — October 22, 2026 — Audiences seeing 20th Century Studios' Whalefall can now hear the people who made it talk them through the film, in sync, from their own seat. Beginning October 23, TheaterEars' Director's Experience (DX) delivers a newly recorded commentary from director/co-writer/producer Brian Duffield, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and co-writer Daniel Kraus, and editor Pietro Scalia to moviegoers' phones at participating showtimes in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, free through the TheaterEars app.
Whalefall follows Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams), a college student who dives off Monterey's Monastery Beach to recover his late father's remains and is swallowed by a sperm whale with roughly an hour of air left in his tank. The film plays out against that clock. In the commentary, Kraus and Duffield discuss turning a largely internal novel into a film and grounding it in science with whale anatomist Dr. Joy Reidenberg. Duffield walks through the practical stomach sets built with Wētā Workshop, kept as tight as they appear on screen and shot in story order. Scalia, who won Academy Awards® for editing JFK and Black Hawk Down, explains how to pace a story told against a countdown.
“We made Whalefall to be seen big and heard loud, with the audience trapped inside that whale right alongside Jay," said Brian Duffield. "Recording this with Daniel and Pietro felt like sitting in the back row of a theater and pointing out everything we obsessed over: the science, the sets, every cut that keeps the clock ticking. If you've already seen it once, this is the best excuse I can think of to go back in."
"Whalefall is about one hour of air and everything a father taught his son, and it was made for the biggest screen you can find," said Dan Mangru, CEO of TheaterEars. "The Director's Experience gives audiences a reason to see it again, with Brian, Daniel and Pietro explaining how a novel became a screenplay and how every cut keeps you inside that whale. We're grateful to 20th Century Studios for bringing it to theaters."
The Director's Experience launched earlier in 2026 with first-ever synchronized theatrical commentaries for Project Hail Mary (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller), The Mandalorian and Grogu (Jon Favreau) and Toy Story 5 (co-director Kenna Harris), and in August added James Cameron's original commentary for Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
HOW IT WORKS: Download the free TheaterEars app for iOS or Android at TheaterEars.com/Download, select Whalefall at a participating showtime, and put on headphones before the feature begins. Within seconds, the app will sync to the movie playing on the big screen and you’ll hear the director’s commentary audio in your earbuds. The commentary is in English.
For more information please visit: https://www.theaterears.com/directors-experience
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ABOUT WHALEFALL
From 20th Century Studios, Whalefall is an emotional survival thriller from director, co-writer and producer Brian Duffield, adapted from the novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Kraus, who co-wrote the screenplay. A year after his father's death, college student Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) dives off the California coast to recover the remains of his father, Mitt (Josh Brolin), a local diving legend, and is swallowed whole by a sperm whale. With about an hour of air left, Jay begins to see that the hard lessons Mitt taught him may be his way out. The cast also includes Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy and Emily Rudd. The film is produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Duffield, Jeb Brody and Allan Mandelbaum, with cinematography by Aaron Morton, editing by Pietro Scalia and music by Joseph Trapanese. Whalefall is rated PG-13 and is now playing in theaters.
ABOUT THEATEREARS
TheaterEars, Inc. is a theatrical audio synchronization platform with approximately 4 million registered users across iOS and Android. The company delivers supplemental synchronized audio — Spanish-language dubbing, audio description and the Director's Experience commentary program — directly to a moviegoer's smartphone, with no additional exhibitor hardware required. TheaterEars works in movie theaters throughout North America with content from all major studios. For more information, visit https://www.theaterears.com/directors-experience.
MEDIA CONTACT
TheaterEars: Dan Mangru, CEO, dan@theaterears.com
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