Filmmaker Noah Baumbach is leaving Netflix after nearly a decade to sign a first look deal with Warner Bros., with his next original film set for theatrical distribution through the studio's new Clockwork label.
Warner Bros. announced the deal on Thursday, marking a significant shift for the director behind "Marriage Story" and "Frances Ha." Baumbach will write, direct, and produce a new original feature distributed by Clockwork, with David Heyman and LuckyChap attached as producers. The Wrap reported that Variety first broke the news.
The deal formally starts in 2027. No details about the new film's subject matter, genre, or financial terms have been disclosed.
Baumbach's move back to theatrical distribution is worth noting for what it says about the streaming model he spent years working inside. His last film released in traditional theaters was 2015's "Mistress America," distributed by Searchlight. A documentary, "De Palma," received a limited release that same year. Everything since has gone straight to Netflix.
That Netflix run included "The Meyerowitz Stories" in 2017, the Oscar-winning "Marriage Story" in 2019, "White Noise" in 2022, and this year's "Jay Kelly," a George Clooney vehicle. Each film earned critical attention. None played wide in theaters.
For audiences who believe movies belong on big screens, and for an industry that has watched streaming deals pull serious filmmakers out of cinemas for years, Baumbach's return to theatrical is a small but real course correction. The market, not ideology, appears to be driving it. Studios like Warner Bros. are investing again in theatrical pipelines, and filmmakers are following the opportunity.
Clockwork is Warner Bros.' new distribution label. Baumbach's untitled film joins a slate that reportedly already includes a project starring Jenna Ortega and Rose Byrne titled "Nasty." Beyond those two titles, the label's full mandate and lineup remain unclear.
Baumbach is no stranger to Warner Bros. He co-wrote "Barbie," the studio's blockbuster hit directed by Greta Gerwig. That collaboration is ongoing, Warner Bros. has been working to get a "Barbie" sequel off the ground with both Baumbach and Gerwig, though those efforts are described only as still "in motion."
Gerwig, meanwhile, has her own major release ahead. Her next film, "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew," is set to open in IMAX and traditional theaters worldwide in February. Netflix is distributing it, making it one of the streamer's biggest theatrical releases ever, an ironic backdrop to Baumbach's departure from the platform.
Before the Netflix years, Baumbach made his reputation the old-fashioned way. Early indie films like "Kicking and Screaming" and "The Squid and the Whale" put him on the map as a sharp, literate voice in American cinema. Those films found their audiences in art-house theaters and through word of mouth, not autoplay queues.
His representation, CAA, JSSK, and Narrative, negotiated the Warner Bros. deal. Heyman is repped by Carlos Goodman and Eric Brooks of GGSSC, while LuckyChap is represented by Entertainment 360, CAA, attorney Jeff Bernstein, and Narrative.
The streaming era gave filmmakers like Baumbach generous budgets and creative freedom. What it didn't always give them was a theater full of paying customers. If the Clockwork deal signals anything, it's that even directors who thrived inside the Netflix ecosystem see value in putting films back where audiences can actually share them, in a dark room, on a big screen, the way movies were meant to be seen.
