Noah Baumbach is reuniting with some familiar faces on his next project. After earning huge acclaim for Marriage Story, Baumbach is bringing back Adam Driver and will also collaborate with his wife Greta Gerwig on an adaptation of Don DeLillo‘s classic novel, White Noise.
Just like Baumbach’s prior two movies, it will be a Netflix production. Gerwig and Driver previously starred together in Baumbach’s 2012 mumblecore hit Frances Ha.
DeLillo was merely a cult writer until White Noise was published in 1985, where he won the National Book Award for fiction. He went on to write other classics such as Underworld and Libra, and is now regarded as one of the best writers of his generation.
White Noise follows a professor of Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America who’s now on his fourth wife. When an “airborne toxic event” unleashes a lethal black chemical cloud, their mortality comes at them hard.
Baumbach adapting DeLillo is a an odd but incredibly exciting pairing. Both are masters at examining the human psyche but go about it in different ways – Baumbach through a combination of realism and humour, DeLillo with themes of mass media saturation and the surrender of individuals to group identity.
This should immediately become one of the most anticipated films currently in production. Baumbach + Driver & Gerwig x DeLillo is a mouth-watering combination. Although despite DeLillo’s acclaim, only his 2003 novel Cosmopolis has been adapted for the screen, even though many of his other works have been optioned.
Perhaps that speaks to how tricky it is to transmute DeLillo’s words from page to screen. Many other great books have had lacklustre silver screen outings simply because the source material doesn’t work as well in another medium. White Noise is probably one of DeLillo’s most accessible books though, so hopefully Baumbach and co. can find a way to master it.
Filming is due to get underway in June. Baumbach and Gerwig are also currently co-writing the Barbie movie for producer Margot Robbie, which couldn’t be further from DeLillo. It’s still unclear what Gerwig’s next directorial feature will be, but after the critical success of both Lady Bird and Little Women, she should have plenty of opportunities.
#Peace.Love.WhiteNoise
