As part of a new deal to produce films for Netflix over several years, Noah Baumbach is set to take on an adaptation of Don DeLillo’s breakthrough (and National Book Award-winning) novel published in 1985, titled White Noise.
The satirical story focuses on a professor and his wife, whose joint fear of mortality comes to a head when an “Airborne Toxic Event” sees a poisonous chemical released over the town where they live.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Little Women and Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig – Baumbach’s partner and longtime creative collaborator – is attached to star, alongside Adam Driver. Driver previously co-starred across from Scarlett Johansson in Baumbach’s acclaimed, Netflix-produced Marriage Story.
Baumbach has previously cast Gerwig – as well as sharing writing and directing credits – in 2013’s Frances Ha, 2015’s Mistress America, and 2010’s Greenberg (look back over the indie power couple’s creative partnership here).
Reportedly, production on White Noise is set to begin this summer, after Driver finishes work on MGM’s Gucci murder film, also starring Lady Gaga and Jared Leto. Directed by Ridley Scott, Gucci will see Gaga portray the wife (and later convicted murderer) of Maurizio Gucci, grandson of Guccio Gucci, the label’s founder.
“When I started in the film industry I dreamed of having a home,” says Baumbach, on the new deal with the streaming giant. “It took me about 25 years but it was worth the wait.”
In October last year, Baumbach joined a host of other filmmakers – including Gerwig, Jordan Peele, Pedro Almodóvar, Sofia Coppola, Luca Guadagnino, and Wes Anderson – to warn that cinemas face extinction amid the coronavirus pandemic.