Noah Baumbach has signed a three-year first-look deal with Warner Bros., according to Variety. The agreement ends a multi-year exclusive pact at Netflix that produced White Noise and Jay Kelly. It marks Baumbach’s return to wide theatrical filmmaking.
His inaugural Warner Bros. project will be released through Clockwork, the studio’s specialty label launched in late 2025. Clockwork is led by Christian Parkes, formerly Chief Marketing Officer at Neon, and is built around lower-budget films aimed at digital native audiences. The label has already acquired Sean Baker’s Ti Amo! and Park Chan-wook’s The Brigands of Rattlecreek, and is theatrically re-releasing Ken Russell’s The Devils in a 4K restoration this October.
The new film, still untitled, follows two college students in New York City. David Heyman and LuckyChap are attached as producers. Baumbach is set to write, direct, and produce. Production is planned for 2027.
The deal carries particular weight given Baumbach’s contribution to Barbie, which he co-wrote with Greta Gerwig and which became Warner Bros.’ biggest film in history. That credit positioned Baumbach as a natural fit for a studio now investing in auteur-driven theatrical fare through Clockwork.
For Baumbach, the move signals a return to the format that defined his career before the Netflix era. The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha, and Marriage Story all reached audiences through theatrical first. The new deal puts him back in that lane.
