In a press statement issued on Wednesday, with a visual saying: ‘the biggest catastrophe is yet to come’, Oslo-based Fantefilm outlined their intention for their third disaster film after their smash hits The Wave (2015) and The Quake (2017) and the expected release date in Norway: fall 2021.

North Sea (Nordsjøen) will reunite The Quake’s director John Andreas Andersen, and writer Harald Rosenløw Eeg, joined by co-writer Lars Gudmestad (Headhunters). The film is produced by Fantefilm’s Martin Sundland (The Wave, The Quake, Cold Prey), with Catrin Gundersen and Therese Bøhn.

Fantefilm said in its statement: “On Christmas Eve 1969, the Norwegian government announced news that would change Norway forever: One of the world's largest offshore oil discoveries was a fact. Ekofisk was the start of an unprecedented financial adventure. But do we fully understand the consequences of our operations on the seabed? Can we be sure that 50 years of experience has given us all the answers? How long will the adventure last and how will it end? The answers come in North Sea, which will be a new big and spectacular suspense film.”

Raising the question of the limitation of the oil adventure and its final moment, triggered by humans or natural causes, Martin Sundland asks whether “over 50 years of oil drilling in the North Sea”, Norwegians have “really accumulated enough knowledge to understand and prepare for the intense natural forces that exist in the deep." “These are some of the themes that we will highlight in our new feature film North Sea,” he says, adding that “technological development in film production” is what now allows his company to tell stories they could only “dream” of before.

Harald Rosenløw Eeg and Lars Gudmestad also explained their vision and passion for disaster movies: “The love of the classic action movie and the magnificent suspense film are in the backbone of all of us at Fantefilm. That is why it is absolutely fantastic to be able to write such a film based on both Norwegian nature and Norwegian reality. Our writers' hearts lie both in playing with the exciting "what-if" scenario and in portraying ordinary people who are put to the test. We are also looking forward to working with director John Andreas Andersen again, and know that he will turn our script into a captivating and spectacular cinematic experience.”

According to the Norwegian Film Institute which has granted NOK 15m (€1.5m) in production support, North Sea has an estimated budget of around NOK 72m (€7.2m). The Quake and The Wave each cost around NOK 50m (€5m).

Contacted by www.nordicfilmandtvnews.com, producer Catrin Gundersen declined to comment on the estimated budget, but confirmed that filming is set to start in the summer 2020.

Besides their domestic record-breaking performances, The Wave and The Quake were major international successes for Fantefilm. The films handled by TrustNordisk were sold worldwide, including to Magnolia Pictures in the US.