The fact that Greta Gerwig is following up her directorial work on “Lady Bird” and “Little Women” with a new “Barbie” film is an odd situation, in and of itself. However, adding to the mix is the addition of Gerwig’s partner, Noah Baumbach, as a co-writer of the “Barbie” screenplay. And according to Baumbach, his work on his most recent film, “White Noise,” had an impact on how he and Gerwig approached “Barbie,” oddly enough.
Speaking to EW, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach shed some light on the surprising connections between the work put into “White Noise,” which stars Gerwig and is written and directed by Baumbach, and their work on “Barbie,” which is directed by Gerwig but co-written alongside Baumbach. And while you might be confused about how a long-awaited adaptation of Don DeLillo’s classic novel might connect with a live-action film about one of the most famous children’s toys ever created, Baumbach and Gerwig are here to say that those two projects do share some overlap.
“I wrote ‘White Noise,’ and then, once I had that in a place where I thought, okay, I’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting, Greta and I started work on ‘Barbie,’” explained Baumbach. “So that was all sort of happening during that first year of the pandemic. They’re kind of connected in a funny. The execution is different but there are aspects of the world of ‘White Noise’ that actually informed some of how we looked at ‘Barbie.’”
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Gerwig added, “Everything got written in 2020, they very much feel like they came out of the same place in a way. I mean they physically came out of the same address. But I think it contributed, him working on that and us working on ‘Barbie’ together.”
And since they are somewhat “connected,” should film fans make a double feature with both new films? Gerwig isn’t so sure it would be that coherent, but why not?
“I’m not going to pitch that,” she said. “I’m sure if someone wanted to, it might be interesting. I don’t know, it could be strange. I can feel how they’re connected, but I don’t know if anyone else will see it.”
Again, it’s an odd comparison, right? “White Noise” is a satire about a college professor who has to evacuate himself and his family after an “Airborne Toxic Event” invades his community. And “Barbie,” well, is “Barbie.” We don’t know too much about the story of the film, but the one teaser seems to point to a very bright, colorful, and frenetic film about multiple Barbie and Ken dolls, with an incredible all-star cast.
Will one of the “Barbie” dolls be a Professor of Hitler Studies, as is the main character in “White Noise?” Obviously not. But perhaps there is a bit of a connection between the two projects that we will fully realize after we’ve seen “Barbie.”
“White Noise” is available now on Netflix, and “Barbie” will debut in theaters on July 21.