Netflix picks up Billionaire Island drama, featuring Norway's salmon industry

Filming is underway on the first season of a Netflix project titled Billionaire Island, a drama about familial rivalry within the global salmon industry.

The series, which is categorized as contemporary fiction, portrays the fish-farming industry in a “funny as well as dramatic portrait,” Netflix said in a press release on 24 September.

“Over the last few decades, fish farming has changed both the Norwegian coast and international food culture,” Billionaire Island creators and writers Anne Bjørnstad and Eilif Skodvin said. “The time feels right for a television drama about the operators in the industry, and it’s amazing that a global streaming service like Netflix has the guts to tell such a locally grounded story.”

The show is brought to Netlifx by Rubicon Production Company, the creators behind the popular Netflix series “Lilyhammer,” which is also set in Norway. Billionaire Island is also directed by Oslo, Norway-based director Marit Moum Aune, who has also directed “Made in Oslo” and “Struggle for Life,” among others.

Netflix announced the show will feature Trine Wiggen, Svein Roger Karlsen, Kåre Conradi, Oddgeir Thune, and Bjarne Brøndbo, the lead singer of Norwegian pop/rock band D.D.E.

According to Variety, the working name of the show was Salmon Island before it was solidified to Billionaire Island.

Filming for the series began on 23 August in Froya, Norway, and is set to debut internationally in 2024.

Photo courtesy of Netflix