Gary Oldman to Narrate David Bowie Is Mobile App

Oscar winner Gary Oldman will narrate David Bowie Is, a forthcoming mobile app that expands upon on the record-breaking David Bowie exhibition of the same name.

The David Bowie Is exhibition opened in 2013 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and became the most-visited touring exhibition in the museum’s history, drawing over two million visitors across 12 cities over its five-year run, which ended when the exhibition shuttered permanently in July 2018.

“This brings the amazing David Bowie is exhibition to a wider audience,” said Oldman in a statement. It’s great that his fans get to experience it. It was a privilege to be involved.”

Oldman and Bowie were old friends, having first met in the late ‘80s in South London, where they were both born and bred. The two both appeared in artist Julian Schnabel’s 1996 debut film Basquiat, and Oldman also appeared in the video for “The Next Day” (below), the title track from Bowie’s penultimate album.

David Bowie Is will launch as an augmented reality (AR) mobile app, with a VR version scheduled to release at a later date. According to the app’s website, it features “over five hundred high-resolution captures of Bowie’s costumes, sketches, notes, hand-written lyrics, music videos and original works of art … presented in striking arrangements and immersive settings, with 60 new items added to the original touring exhibition.”

The David Bowie Is app ($7.99) launches on iOS and Android Jan. 8, which would have been Bowie’s 72nd birthday.

Find out more about the app here and listen to a 19867 Bowie performance from the Paste archives below.