The film adaptation of Don DeLillo’s White Noise will premiere at the Venice Film Festival this summer, Deadline reports.
The movie, which will air on Netflix on a date to be determined, is written and directed by Noah Baumbach, known for films including The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha, and Marriage Story. It stars Adam Driver (House of Gucci), Greta Gerwig (Hannah Takes the Stairs), Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda), and André 3000 (Four Brothers).
DeLillo’s 1985 novel, regarded as one of the best of his career, follows a professor of Hitler Studies whose marriage is affected by a mysterious “airborne toxic event.” In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “DeLillo turns a TV-movie disaster scenario into a new Book of Revelations in these pages: a very disturbing, very impressive achievement.”
DeLillo’s books have been adapted for the screen before. The 2016 film Never Ever was based on The Body Artist, and his novel Cosmopoliswas adapted into a 2012 movie of the same name starring Robert Pattinson.
“It is a truly wonderful thing to return to the Venice Film Festival, and an incredible honor to have White Noise play as the opening night film,” Baumbach said. “This is a place that loves cinema so much, and it’s a thrill and a privilege to join the amazing films and filmmakers that have premiered here.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
