Ernest Becker's "The Denial of Death" may have been an indirect influence on Barbie (2023). Novelist Don DeLillo acknowledged that "The Denial of Death" inspired his novel "White Noise." Noah Baumbach adapted DeLillo's novel into the film White Noise (2022) which starred Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. Immediately after that film, Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig co-wrote Barbie (2023), which itself turns on the main character's existential question, "You guys ever think about dying?"
Originally had the working title "Desert of the Real" after Jean Baudrillard's phrase.
The filmmakers have said this is the third film in a series that explores "the eclipse of nature by culture."
Ernest Becker's "The Denial of Death" has a cameo appearance in the Woody Allen film Annie Hall (1977) in two scenes. The first time it is seen is when Alvy Singer gives it to Annie Hall as a gift at the Doubleday Book Shop on Fifth Avenue. The second time the book appears is when they are breaking up and separating their books.