These last 48 hours had Variety and THR including Baumbach’s “White Noise” on their Venice predictions list.
What I don’t get is that Netflix’s people were telling us, less than two weeks ago, that it wouldn’t be done until October. Some pundits were told the same thing.
So, after a few emails sent out, apparently, “White Noise” will be screened for Telluride during the first week of August. It’s “ready,” they say, and you can keep the quotations on there. What changed?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Netflix does what they did with “Blonde” and pulls it out of Venice in the last minute, the film just didn’t sound ready at all.
Regardless, there’s clearly a lot of drama going on behind this movie, which was said to have a chaotic 9-month, $140 million shoot. An anonymous crew member even told us the following about the on-set chaos:
Many of the people on the set that I'm on now worked on [“White Noise”]. They all back it up, and usually contribute their own horror stories of being on that set.
Another extra added:
“I was an extra on it for a couple days, the production design went crazy. Baumbach was obsessively burning through film prints.
Let’s not forget Baumbach also swapped DP’s mid-shoot, from Michael Seresin to Lol Crawley. Production went on for nine months. It all sounds like he may have dug himself into his very own “Heaven’s Gate.”
Best of all, after publishing the story recounting the on-set chaos, I started getting emails from both sides of the infighting. An in-the-know person told me about a private “White Noise” screening that occurred earlier this month in Los Angeles:
I've been following the online “White Noise” chatter and I believe most of it to be overstated. [Michael] Seresin was replaced as DP because he was unkind on-set and contested Baumbach's desire for multiple takes. Lol Crawley was a better visual fit as the film is Baumbach's most audacious and formally ambitious project yet. All on film, nonetheless. I've heard good and exciting things regarding the film and its performances, especially Adam Driver, as it has been recently screened and shown for a few lucky people. Most are telling me that the film is visually appealing, with lots of long take master shots and unlike anything Baumbach has put on screen before. He’s stepped his game up visuall and cinematically and as a result the performances from Driver and Gerwig are very committed and dedicated.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” will be the go-for-broke statement of his career. After dishing out some truly great indies in his filmography, he’s decided to swing for the fences with this Don Dellilo adaptation.
DeLillo’s novel has been deemed “impossible to film” ever since it was published back in 1985. It is a plotless postmodernist exploration of death, consumerism, and suburban malaise.
Dealing with Jack and Babette Gladney, a college professor of “Hitler studies” and his mostly-loving wife, DeLillo’s novel deals with this couple’s social anxieties, but, more specifically, their unabashed fear of death.
Let me be clear, “White Noise” is not being seen as an Oscar contender by Netflix. They are prioritizing a slew of other titles over it. The film is said to be divisive and inaccessible. Know what? I’m all here for it.