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On a windswept Norwegian island live two families bound by both business and blood feuds. The streaming show Milliardærøya, known in English as Billionaire Island, takes us into their world. Created by the team behind Lilyhammer, this drama comedy ventures beyond coastal cliffs to explore the people and passions driving two fishing empire dynasties.

The island setting is home to generations of the Lange and Meyer families. Industrialists who’ve shaped Norway’s lucrative salmon farming industry for decades, their rivalry now runs deeper than the fjords. Julie Lange leads Marlax, one business headed from sleek city offices. Gjert Meyer heads the other, Meyer Fjordbruk, from their older generation approach.

When a rival company shareholder dies abroad, Julie spies opportunity. Her plan to buy his shares and merge the businesses meets resistance from tradition-bound Gjert. But both clans hide cracks within, and growing discord may prove the wider threats. Beyond bottom lines and boardroom brawls,...

In the Norwegian dramedy Billionaire Island, Trine Wiggen (Breaking Surface) stars as the CEO of a salmon-farming company planning a hostile takeover under the noses of her rivals — and even some of her closest confidantes. The series, from Lilyhammer creators Anne Bjørnstad and Eilif Skodvin, skewers the lives of Norway’s wealthiest fishing industry execs and their nepo offspring. For more scathing satire and shady business deals, check out these shows to watch next.

Twelve years after Netflix launched its first original series, Lilyhammer, the show’s creators, Anne Bjørnstad and Eilif Skodvin, are back — this time with Billionaire Island, a satirical dramedy about Norway’s very real (and very lucrative) fish-farming business. The series follows a ruthless CEO in coastal Norway who’s planning a hostile takeover against her biggest rival to become the world’s largest salmon producer. It stars Trine Wiggen, Svein Roger Karlsen, and Ragne Grande.

“[Billionaire Island] deals with one of the newer marine creatures in Norway: the salmon billionaire,” Bjørnstad and Skodvin told Netflix. “The fish-farming industry has made many Norwegians very rich and … has changed both the Norwegian coast and international food culture. The time feels right for a television drama about the operators in the industry.”

Stream it now.

Check it out at the top of this page.

Julie (Wiggen) is up to something. She’s...

For over fifty years now, Stevie Van Zandt has been a central figure in rock music and popular culture across multiple genres. Starting in the 1960s music scene of New Jersey, he rose to fame as a co-founder of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and as lead guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s famous E Street Band. Ever the entrepreneur, Van Zandt also produced albums and wrote songs for other artists.

By the 1980s, his interests expanded into politics and activism. He vocally opposed apartheid in South Africa and organized the supergroup Artists United Against Apartheid. Their protest anthem, “Sun City,” united superstars like Bob Dylan and Miles Davis in creative defiance. Van Zandt’s solo career under the name Little Steven also addressed themes of justice and equality.

Despite this globetrotting musical career and outspoken political work, Stevie Van Zandt’s story had only just begun. In the 2000s,...

The erosion of the traditional TV landscape began many years ago.

First, premium cable channels like HBO began to chip away at the stronghold that had once been the exclusive domain of the “big three” networks.

Then, with the floodgates opened, a deluge of basic cable options — from MTV to ESPN — further flooded the market.

(Courtesy of Apple TV+)

The rise of home video amounted to another assault on the broadcast fortress.

And not long after digital antennae dealt a death blow to rabbit ears a new and formidable threat emerged from the strange new frontier of the internet.

We’re talking, of course, about streaming.

A Growing Threat

For decades, the disintegration of network television was as gradual as climate change.

But over the course of the past 15 years, it’s gained the speed and momentum of a biblical flash flood.

It started, of course, with Netflix — a little...

"Sometimes you have to do painful things for you family." Netflix has revealed the trailer for Billionaire Island, a dark comedy series streaming this fall on Netflix worldwide. It's the latest Netflix series creation from the same creators of "Lilyhammer". Julie Lange, the head of Marlax, plans a hostile takeover of a local competitor to become the world's largest salmon producer. Billionaire Island is about the rivalry between two families, pitting old traditions against new (wealth) ambitions. It's about two families in a small coastal community in Norway who are sworn enemies in the global salmon industry. The series is shot at the island of Frøya, Trøndelag, and depicts Norway's much-talked about and major fish farming industry in a new and humorous way. Trine Wiggen leads the cast as a ruthless owner of a Norwegian fish farming company who plans a hostile takeover of her local rival in order to...

For filmmaker Bill Teck, the hardest part of making a documentary about the life and career of Little Steven Van Zandt was just fitting it all in. “It’s just a complicated life,” says Teck, who directed the new documentary Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple, streaming now on Max. “Silvio Dante helped end apartheid!” In addition to his work in the E Street Band with Bruce Springsteen, Van Zandt was the writer and producer behind Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ great 1970s albums; a solo artist backed by his band,...

Stevie Van Zandt is full of contradictions, but owns them. The E Street Band member, songwriter, activist and producer is uncompromising when it comes to creative ideas, charging forward on a vision even when it leads to commercial dead ends. Yet he’s also an insider’s insider with a rolodex of heavyweight artists, executives and directors willing to sing his praises or line him up to punch up a song or a soundtrack.

He’s burned bridges — yes, including walking out on Bruce Springsteen’s group right before Born In the U.S.A.’s big payday; going all-in on a solo career that, in his own words, yielded no hits — yet also mended them. His late-career renaissance as an actor, plucked out by David Chase to be Sil on The Sopranos, looks less improbable when realizing that Van Zandt always seems to have a few irons in the fire.

Norwegian leading indie prodco Seefood TV, credited for the Canneseries and Rockie Awards entry “Dumbsday”, is attending the Cannes’ TV festival and content market MipTV, with the quirky romantic comedy “Still Looking” (“Evig Singel”).

Prolific star actor Trond Fausa Aursvåg toplines the Norwegian ensemble cast, next to Kristine Grændsen, Kevin Vågenes (“What Happened to Solveig?”), Tuva Billing (“Lunch”), Lene Kongsvik Johansen (“Christmas on Cobble Street”) and Amir Asgharnejad (“Christmas on Blood Mountain”).

The six-part 22 minute episode “Still Looking” is penned by Andreas Rand (“Dumbsday”), Oddne Lekang Hølaas and Mike Torsvik Johansen (“Superhero Academy”).

“The series weaves together the stories of six characters between the ages of 25 and 50, who have all been single more or less all their lives. All are looking for love but never quite seem to find the right partner.

“We’ve been inspired by “Love on the Spectrum,’” Seefood TV co-founder Aleksander Herresthal told Variety. “In a way,...

Exclusive: Stevie Van Zandt, a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, has had a long association with television, starring as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos and leading Netflix’s Lilyhammer.

The musician and actor is now looking to merge the two with a music television format, The Jam.

Van Zandt has teamed up with Apploff Entertainment, the company behind Fox game shows Don’t Forget The Lyrics and We Are Family, to develop the project.

A weekly live-to-tape event, the series is inspired by classic series such as American Bandstand and Soul Train as well as MTV Unplugged. It will bring together global pop stars and new artists with performances, story packages and interviews.

It is the latest music format for Jeff Apploff’s company; in addition to Don’t Forget The Lyrics, the company is behind Fox’s Beat Shazam. Elsewhere, it produces CBS’ Lotería Loca and NBC’s The Wheel.

Leonard Cohen had a huge impact on generations of fans, and So Long, Marianne star Alex Wolff is one of them.

Speaking exclusively to Deadline ahead of So Long‘s worldwide premiere at Series Mania this week, Oppenheimer and Hereditary actor Wolff paid tribute to the late singer-songwriter. “His contribution to my life has been so substantial that whatever words I have don’t sum up what he’s meant to my working life and to me personally,” he said.

Wolff, who is himself a musician and recording artist, plays Cohen in So Long, Marianne, which is one of the buzziest international series at Series Mania, which is Europe’s largest scripted television festival. The Nrk and Crave series is the International Competition category against the likes of Peacock’s Apples Never Fall and the ABC’s House of Gods.

In the eight-part series, Wolff appears opposite Thea Sofie Loch Næss...

25 years ago, television changed forever. It was at the start of 1999 that HBO aired the first episode of The Sopranos – the groundbreaking gangster drama that took the cinematic tropes of The Godfather and Goodfellas and turned them longform. With its then-contemporary depiction of a crime family – both the underworld operation run by James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano, and the domestic Soprano household – facing up to the realities of 21st Century life and a tidal shift in mobster generations, it was both a deconstruction of and gripping addition to the gangster canon. In the likes of Tony, and Lorraine Bracco’s therapist Dr. Melfi, and Steven Van Zandt’s hard-headed Silvio Dante, and Edie Falco’s long-suffering wife Carmela Soprano, it introduced some of the greatest characters to ever grace the small screen.

To mark a quarter of a century since The Sopranos debuted, the latest issue of Empire features an...

Licensing is what allowed Netflix to grow into the largest streaming service in the world, and the company is looking to invest heavily in it again.

Netflix built its throne as the largest streaming service in the world primarily on its reputation of being the central hub where you could find all of the TV shows and movies that you could ever hope to watch. However, as the service grew and became an increasingly powerful player in the entertainment world, fewer and fewer competing media companies were willing to part with their content as they were afraid that it would only increase Netflix’s dominance in the burgeoning streaming space. However, now that streaming has settled into an era where growth is important, but no longer the primary measure of success, an increasing number of studios have been willing to return to or increase their licensing deals with Netflix.

After...

Some people just have no sense of humor.

After Monday’s 75th Emmy Awards awarded basically three series — “Succession,” “The Bear,” and “Beef” — some TV fans were left feeling somewhere between robbed and confounded.

A number of observers simply didn’t dig the repetition; “Succession” and “Beef” each won eight Emmys, including the Creative Arts awards the weekend prior to the primetime show, and “The Bear” took home 10. Rote results, sure, but they were probably three of the best five shows of the eligibility window: June 1, 2022-May 31, 2023.

If that feels like a long time ago, that’s because it was. Monday’s Emmy Awards were supposed to air in September 2023, but were delayed by the writers’ and actors’ strikes.

Some of the loudest opposition to Monday’s Emmys results was simply about the category that “The Bear” dominated: comedy. The resistance has a point — but that doesn’t make them right.

Picture: Netflix

First released in 2013, The Square was an early awards contender for Netflix and is still considered to be one of Netflix’s best documentaries in its history. Sadly, however, the documentary is currently set to depart the streaming service in January 2024.

Covering the 2011 Egyptian protest that looked to overthrow the military leader, the doc still holds a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Ty Burr for the Boston Globe said when it released:

“What does a revolution feel like from the inside? I’m not sure we’ll ever get closer than “The Square,” an electrifying, at times heartbreaking documentary from the Egypt-born, Harvard-educated documentarian Jehane Noujaim.”

The Square isn’t on every Netflix region, but it’s worth noting. The doc was notably only picked up exclusively in a handful of regions, with Netflix serving only as an international distributor and not quite a full Netflix Original (quite...

Speaking at a panel held at the Mia Market in Rome, Netflix execs laid out a European strategy based on cultural and regional specificity alongside wider international format exchange.

“We want to create stories that are really rooted in our country’s culture and tradition,” said Italian content VP Eleonora Andreatta. “[And in order] to be authentic, that means recognizing the differences between one part of the country to the other.”

While Netflix’s recently wrapped adaptation of “The Leopard” is steeped in Sicilian history, the Matilda De Angelis-led returning series “The Law According to Lidia Poët” finds female emancipation in 19th century Turin. And if both titles look backward, both also share an impetus to shade Italian history in a more modern light.

Per Andreatta, Italian cinema’s glorious dolce vita boom had also left a bitter aftertaste by way of cultural stereotypes that lingered for years. Andreatta and her Rome-based...

If I asked you to name the first original production from Netflix, what would you say? An educated guess might bring you to "House of Cards" or "Lilyhammer," and that's a fair assessment. While the former was Netflix's first piece of original programming produced specifically for the company's streaming service (released in February of 2013), the latter technically has the honor of being Netflix's first original streaming production (premiering on Netflix in February of 2012), even though it was only partially funded by Netflix and actually premiered in Norway first under the TV network NRK1. 

But what if I told you that neither of these was the first true Netflix original? What if I told you Netflix produced their first original production even before they created the now-defunct Red Envelope Entertainment? Yes, before streaming, Netflix had a film financing and acquisition arm that shuttered in 2008 after investing in more than 100 films and...

Netflix has ordered a sequel to “Troll,” the Norwegian action-adventure film directed by Roar Uthaug, who helmed Norway’s first disaster movie, “The Wave.”

“Troll 2” reteams Uthaug (“Tomb Raider”) with writer Espen Aukan and producers Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud at Motion Blur, the Oslo-based banner whose credits include “Cadaver,” “Amundsen” and “The 12th Man.”

The first installment unfolds in the aftermath of an explosion in the Norwegian mountains, which awakens an ancient troll. The story revolves around a fearless paleontologist who embarks on a journey to stop the troll from wreaking deadly havoc. The cast included Ine Marie Wilmann, Kim Falck, Mads Pettersen and Gard B. Eidsvold.

“Troll” premiered globally on Netflix in 2022 and quickly became the streamer’s most popular non-English film of all time, with a record-breaking 103,000,000 views in its first 91 days, according to Netflix. The epic movie also ranked in the Top 10 in 93 countries...

In what will be news to literally everyone, Netflix is still renting out physical DVDs — at least for the next month or two. Back in April, the company confirmed it would be shuttering its DVD-by-mail service on September 29, 2023, and has now announced plans for a grand finalé that will allow whoever it is that's still using that service to borrow up to 10 discs at once.

As Deadline reports, Netflix unveiled the offer via email from its DVD.com site to what must be its tens of users, encouraging them to opt in to the promotion. As standard, DVD.com offers three separate plans, ranging from $9.99 to $19.99 a month, which can be added to customers' existing streaming subscriptions. The maximum amount of discs users can rent at one time is three. Now, the company has devised this generous offer to bid adieu to the service that started it all.

As the email states,...

The value of IP, franchise building and packaging was on the agenda at Seriencamp in Germany here today.

Europe-based execs from Paramount+, Warner Bros International Television Production, Nrk and Miso Film debated the merits of focusing on developing new projects based on well-known properties.

Susanne Schildknecht, SVP of MTV Entertainment Content & Brand, Europe & Middle East and Local Originals Gsa for Paramount International, said that Paramount+’s German business would move pitches with well known IP “to the top of the pile.”

“Consumers can choose from so much content, [so] an IP or triple-a talent makes the choice easier,” she said, but added: “The importance is the story is the most important part of it.”

Paramount+ Germany’s local originals include thriller series Chemie Des Todes, based on a popular Simon Beckett novel, The Chemisty of Death and One Trillion Dollar, also based on a popular book. “The common thread is they are locally relevant,...

It’s raining the Bard.

In the wake of “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight and “Happy Valley” star Sarah Lancashire’s recently announced series on William Shakespeare, another production with the Bard as topic has revealed some of its cast.

Conspiracy drama series “The Rosy Cross: The Rebels who wrote Shakespeare,” being brought to the screen by Lasse Hallberg, executive producer of Netflix series “Lilyhammer,” explores the controversial Shakespeare authorship debate. The cast includes Stephen Campbell Moore, Romario Simpson (“Granite Harbour”), Samuel Barnett (“The History Boys”), co-producer Ed Hughes and Jonny Weldon (“House of the Dragon”).

The series is based on research claiming to identify the real and diverse underground writing group of men and women who secretly crafted the plays under the pseudonym of William Shakespeare, led by the great English philosopher Francis Bacon. The show follows a shadowy order of diverse freedom fighters from all walks of life...

Alex Wolff has been cast as legendary singer Leonard Cohen in So Long, Marianne, the Nrk drama series we first revealed last year.

Thea Sofie Loch Næss will play Canadian musician Cohen’s muse Marianne Ihlen. Anna Torv has also been cast Charmian Clift and Noah Taylor is George Johnston.

Wolff appeared opposite Joachim Phoenix in indie flick Pig and has been cast in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Before that, he reteams with Pig filmmaker Michael Sarnoski on Paramount Pictures’ A Quiet Place: Day One alongside Lupita Nyong’o in 2024.

In further developments, Canadian streamer Crave has boarded So Long, Marianne, which began principal photography on March 24 and is shooting in multiple locations including the Greek island of Hydra, Oslo in Norway,...

Netflix is set to reteam with Anne Bjørnstad and Eilif Skodvin, the creators of the popular crime comedy series “Lilyhammer,” on a new Norwegian program, with the working title “Salmon Island.”

The series is set up at leading Norwegian production banner Rubicon and will be helmed by Marit Moum Aune (“Made in Oslo”), who also serves as a conceptual director on the series.

“Salmon Island” takes place in a small coastal community in Norway and revolves around two families who are sworn enemies in the global salmon industry. The contemporary series delivers a portrait of the fish farming business, weaving together comedy and drama.

“Over the last few decades, fish farming has changed both the Norwegian coast and international food culture,” said Bjørnstad and Skodvin, who also penned the series.

“The time feels right for a television drama about the operators in the industry. It’s amazing that a global...

TV loves itself some mobsters. There’s no getting around it. From Tony Soprano to Nucky Thompson to Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano, we’re enchanted by the bad guys and what they bring to the table. Shows like “The Sopranos,” “Peaky Blinders” and “Boardwalk Empire” – as well as “The Untouchables” in the early 1960s – have captivated us and generated plenty of awards attention in the bargain.

And now here comes another show with malice in its heart, if a wink in its eye, looking to compete for some Emmy attention: “Tulsa King,” the Paramount+ series that launched its first season last November and is plotting to enter production on season two soon (likely early this summer). It’s a crime dramedy set in Tulsa, Oklahoma that stars Sylvester Stallone in his first scripted starring role on TV.

SEEWill Sylvester Stallone land an Emmy nomination for ‘Tulsa King’?

Stallone portrays New...

The Covid-19 pandemic hit the entertainment industry hard with production delays and show cancelations, some of which had already been renewed. The top streamers, though, recovered in 2022, according to new data from Omdia’s Digital Content & Channels Intelligence Service. However, it’s uncertain if these services can — or even want to — keep up their recent pace of original content in the coming year.

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In total, Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Paramount+, and Peacock released 1,752 titles and 4,878 hours of first-run original content, a 60% and an 87% increase in titles and hours, year-over-year.

Netflix was the most active creator in 2022, releasing 3,531 hours and 935 titles, more than half of which were produced outside of the United States. Omdia estimates that Netflix has released more than 14,000 hours of original productions since the debut of “Lilyhammer” in 2012, the company’s first original series.

And for the third straight year,...

"The Sopranos" cast are all New Jersey icons now, but only one of them was before the series premiered. That was Steven Van Zandt, aka "Little Steven," of the E Street Band. Van Zandt is one of the band's guitarists, alongside Patti Scialfa, Nils Lofgren, and of course the Boss himself Bruce Springsteen. During their hiatus in the '90s, Van Zandt found a new gig on TV even though he had never acted before.

In 1997, Van Zandt gave a speech introducing The Rascals before they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "The Sopranos" creator David Chase saw this routine and contacted Van Zandt about appearing on his show. Van Zandt had previously conceived of the character Silvio Dante, a former hitman turned club owner. So, they added the character to Tony Soprano's crew. Thanks to budget concerns, the luxurious '50s-style establishment that Van...

Netflix users have been left baffled by a forthcoming removal from the service.

Recently, several titles labelled “Netflix Originals” have been taken down, leading to confusion among viewers.

Each month, Netflix quietly removes several of these films and TV shows, some of which are not widely streamed.

However, the removal of Lilyhammer and Hemlock Grove, two of Netflix’s first-ever Original projects, caused anger among subscribers.

Netflix was able to reverse Lilyhammer’s removal, much to the happiness of lead star Steven Van Zandt, but due to the expiration of a licencing deal with another of Hemlock Grove’s distributors, that series was taken down.

Now, users are concened by the realisation that Arrested Development will be removed.

While the removal of the sitcom’s first three seasons may be understandable, considering they aired on Fox, it’s the fact that season four and five will also be leaving that is angering many.

Now, the story of a wealthy man who lost everything and was removed from the biggest streaming service. The Bluth family will be packing their bags again next month, as Arrested Development will leave Netflix on March 15th. And that’s why you always leave a note!

When Arrested Development leaves Netflix, it won’t just be the first three seasons but also the fourth and fifth produced by Netflix. Arrested Development aired on Fox for three seasons from 2003-2006, gaining a massive cult following. Arrested Development had such a loyal fanbase that Netflix resurrected it for a fourth season in 2013 and later a fifth and final two-part season in 2018-2019. This will mark the first time Netflix has completely removed one of their (sorta-kinda) original shows.

Netflix put a foreclosure sign on Arrested Development’s lawn due to licensing issues. As for the future of the Bluth family, it...

Netflix users have been left baffled by a forthcoming removal from the service.

Recently, several titles labelled “Netflix Originals” have been taken down, leading to confusion among viewers.

Each month, Netflix quietly removes several of these films and TV shows, some of which are not widely streamed.

However, the removal of Lilyhammer and Hemlock Grove, two of Netflix’s first-ever Original projects, caused anger among subscribers.

Netflix was able to reverse Lilyhammer’s removal, much to the happiness of lead star Steven Van Zandt, but due to the expiration of a licencing deal with another of Hemlock Grove’s distributors, that series was taken down.

Now, users are concened by the realisation that Arrested Development will be removed.

While the removal of the sitcom’s first three seasons may be understandable, considering they aired on Fox, it’s the fact that season four and five will also be leaving that is angering many.

Netflix just can't stop getting itself into sticky situations, huh? That's because every season of "Arrested Development" is now on borrowed time. Variety confirmed that the cult sitcom is expected to leave the platform on March 14, even though the streamer owns the rights to the series and produced two seasons of it. Netflix has not commented on the impending erasure, only marking its prospective removal date.

The interesting thing about this potential streaming purge is that, since Netflix owns both the distribution and production rights to "Arrested Development," it would be one of the very few instances where the streamer removed one of their exclusive shows or films. We previously discussed their removal of "Hemlock Grove," but despite Netflix being the distributor of that series, it was not the production studio. That's not the case for "Arrested Development," whose final two seasons were both produced and distributed through a collaboration...

All episodes of “Arrested Development” are set to be removed from Netflix on March 15 — including Seasons 4 and 5, which Netflix produced itself.

After initially running on Fox for three seasons, “Arrested Development” was canceled in 2006. In 2012, when Netflix was still relatively new to producing its own projects, the streamer elected to revive the series. Co-produced with 20th Television and Imagine Entertainment, Season 4 premiered in 2013 and the fifth and final seasons premiered in two installments between 2018 and 2019.

While the “Arrested Development” landing page on Netflix is already alerting viewers that March 14 is the last day to watch the series, that still seems to be subject to change. Norwegian crime drama “Lilyhammer,” which was billed as the first-ever Netflix original, was announced to be leaving the service last year, but a licensing renewal at the last hour allowed the series to continue streaming. But if the removal of “Arrested Development does go through,...

Comedy fans would say Netflix is making a huge mistake.

The streaming service is removing all five seasons of the Emmy-winning comedy series “Arrested Development” on March 14, as reported by What’s on Netflix. It will be one of the most significant removals of a Netflix Original series to date.

“Arrested Development,” a single-camera comedy from creator Mitchell Hurwitz, ran for three well-regarded but low-rated seasons on Fox between 2003 and 2006. After its cancellation, its reputation as a cult classic grew, thanks in no small part to its availability on Netflix’s then-nascent streaming platform. It became so successful on Netflix that the streaming service commissioned a fourth season, which premiered in May 2013. A “remix” of Season 4 hit Netflix in 2018, followed by a fifth and final season released in two halves in 2018 and 2019. The revival seasons did not reach the critical heights of the original run, and the fifth season was...

The 2022 Nielsen Streaming Unwrapped report has crowned Netflix the leading streaming platform, despite the company’s corporate ups and downs — and exodus of subscribers — throughout the past year.

Per the official Nielsen report, streaming services across the board have gained momentum to be the favored platform for content consumption. Yet it is Netflix original programming that has taken off in particular. Since the platform began rolling out original shows in 2012 with “Lilyhammer” (and then blockbuster “House of Cards” a year later), Netflix has been at the forefront of original content in the competitive streaming wars.

Nielsen ratings noted that “many original titles were responsible for twice the viewing time of top-performing acquired content in 2022,” with “top-performing original content dramatically outpacing top-performing acquired content.” Of course, Netflix’s “Stranger Things” Season 4 topped the streaming ratings and broke records for the platform. Audiences watched 52 billion minutes of “Stranger Things” in 2022, the highest...

Netflix has acquired the global rights outside of Norway to the hard-hitting Norwegian crime series “Gangs of Oslo” (“Blodsbrødre”), produced by Monday Scripted for Norway’s largest commercial broadcaster TV2, Variety has learned exclusively.

The six-part series is created and directed by Ole Endresen, co-writer of Netflix’s first Original series “Lilyhammer” and “Young Wallander.” Monday Productions’ CEO Lasse Hallberg who served as executive producer with Steven van Zandt on “Lilyhammer,” holds a similar role on “Gangs of Oslo,” produced by Cecilie Tiderman. Sajid Malik is co-producing.

TV2 Norway’s head of drama Alice Sommer said that following the show’s premiere on the broadcaster’ own VOD service TV2 Play on Jan.19, and an exclusive six-month hold back period for the Nordic territory, “Gangs of Oslo” will also be available to Netflix customers in Norway. The U.S. streamer is set to premiere the show in the rest of the world in the coming months.

Heads up, HBO Max subscribers: "Westworld" and "The Nevers" are the latest titles to leave your (increasingly less?) favorite streaming service, despite each of them being an HBO original series. Deadline reports that Warner Bros. Discovery, the company that owns HBO, is yanking both shows from HBO Max, with an eye toward putting them on another platform like a Fast (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) channel in the future. For "The Nevers," this also serves as the show's official cancellation, before the second half of its first season eventually airs on whatever platform becomes its new streaming home.

The move comes after HBO Max began purging itself of certain streaming exclusives, along with other well-known HBO shows like "Vinyl," over the summer. At the time, the logic given was that these were all titles that hadn't been performing well in terms of viewer engagement. Despite being a high-profile prestige drama, co-created by Mick Jagger,...

Netflix has saved its first ever original series from being removed in a last-minute deal.

In October, it was announced that the streaming platform would take down Lilyhammer due to the fact its licencing deal had expired.

The crime comedy-drama series, which stars Steven Van Zandt, was acquired by Netflix after its record-breaking debut on Norwegian channel NRK1 in February 2012. It ran for three seasons, ending in 2014.

Every month, the service removes a large number of titles, and Lilyhammer was revealed to be leaving on 20 November by Van Zandt himself.

Expressing his disappointment at the news, the actor and E Street Band musician wrote on Twitter: “It looks like Lilyhammer is about to be disappearing from Netflix, for which it was the very first show, on Nov 20.”

Zandt, whose birthday was on 22 November, continued: “Some birthday present! Big drag. It’s only 24 episodes. So if you haven’t seen it,...

Turns out, the “end of an era” at Netflix was a false alarm.

Following recent reports that “Lilyhammer” would be leaving the service following the expiration of a 10-year licensing agreement, Netflix has closed a last minute deal to continue streaming the show. The news was revealed to IndieWire by Netflix, and means that all 24 episodes of Netflix’s first original series will continue to be available to subscribers.

“Lilyhammer” starred longtime E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt as a mobster who relocates to rural Norway after entering the witness protection program. The series was produced in Norway (Van Zandt was the only American cast member) and aired on the local TV channel NRK1. Netflix entered an agreement to stream “Lilyhammer” for 10 years, but the license was set to expire this month. Had a deal not been reached, “Lilyhammer” would have left the service in December.

“I am very...

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend vet Vella Lovell will be working alongside Joel McHale in Animal Control.

The single-camera Fox comedy follows “a group of local Animal Control workers whose lives are complicated by the fact that animals are simple, but humans are not,” according to the official logline. Per our sister site Variety, which broke the casting, Lovell will play Emily, “the sweet-natured and endearingly awkward boss of the Animal Control precinct” who is beloved by her team.

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The end of an era is upon us. The first Netflix Original series, which paved the way for the streamer's continued success, is saying farewell. Thinking back to the earlier days of this streaming service, it's probably zeitgeisty titles like "House of Cards" and "Orange Is the New Black" that come to mind, and while both debuted nearly a decade ago, quickly garnered popularity and won lots of new subscribers for the fledgling streamer, neither holds the title of first Netflix Original. That honor goes to "Lilyhammer," the Norwegian mob comedy that first arrived in February 2012.

Back in those days, Netflix had around 23 million paid subscribers. Now, it boasts upwards of 223 million, and its expansive library of original series plays a huge role in that number. But none of that ever would have happened without "Lilyhammer" coming first. Netflix 2.0 officially kicked off when the streamer made the leap into debuting original content.

Netflix 2.0 officially kicked off on February 6, 2012, when “Lilyhammer” debuted on the nascent streaming service. That show, a fish-out-of-water mob drama starring Steven Van Zandt, is leaving Netflix next month, IndieWire has confirmed.

While “Lilyhammer” is considered Netflix’s very first original series, it was actually a licensed show that had began airing just 12 days earlier on Norwegian broadcast channel TV Nrk. Netflix streams actually lapped the Norway telecast due to the Los Gatos, California streaming service’s episode-dump strategy, which was revolutionary at the time.

Netflix’s 10-year license to stream the show in the U.S. expires in November and the deal is not being extended, a person with knowledge of the plans told us. Much has changed over the decade of “Lilyhammer” in the library: Netflix now has 223 million global paid subscribers. Back in “Lilyhammer’s” day, the streamer had 23 million subs — or a full 200 million fewer.

This past February,...

Lilyhammer fans are lamenting its rumoured removal from Netflix as they urge others to watch the series before it is too late.

Netflix subscribers have been shocked to discover that the Steven Van Zandt series, which was promoted as the service’s first-ever original show, is reportedly among those to be taken down next month.

Lilyhammer starred The Sopranos actor Van Zandt as Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano, a former New York-based gangster trying to start a new life in the isolated town of Lillehammer in Norway.

Van Zandt, who is also a musician and member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, said that while he has not had the news confirmed, “it looks like Lilyhammer is about to be disappearing from Netflix”.

Fans of the show have urged other Netflix subscribers to watch the series before it will reportedly be pulled from the platform on 20 November.

At the time of writing,...

Netflix is “removing its first ever original series” – and its lead star is none too pleased.

Each month, the streaming platform takes down a large quantity of titles due to licencing rights.

However, users have been surprised to recently discover that some titles billed as Netflix Originals were among those to be removed.

It’s now been reported that Lilyhammer, the series that was promoted as the service’s first ever original, will be taken down, and lead actor Steven Van Zandt has expressed his disappointment with the news.

“I haven’t had it confirmed, but it looks like Lilyhammer is about to be disappearing from Netflix, for which it was the very first show, on Nov 20,” he wrote on Twitter.

Zandt, whose birthday comes two days after, added: “Some birthday present! Big drag. It’s only 24 episodes. So if you haven’t seen it, or want to rewatch it,...

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Rubicon TV, the Norwegian production house behind such cross-over drama successes as Lilyhammer, and Beforeigners, is getting into the spy business with its new series E14 Unit for Special Intel.

The show, which Rubicon is presenting to potential co-production partners at the international TV market MIPCOM in Cannes this week, looks at the untold story of how Norwegian officers from the country’s elite E14 unit played a key role as NATO’s frontline spies for NATO in the 1990 Yugoslav War. When the country’s brutal civil war erupted, a small group of E14 spies were sent to the Balkans to collect intelligence as part of the NATO intervention. The often ruthless and morally-questionable mission stood in start contrast to Norway’s public-facing image as a peace-loving nation.

Sebastian Torngren Wartin and Erik Ivar Sæther will co-write the series, which Gudny Hummelvoll (Occupied, Headhunters) will produce.

Hunting for buried treasure? Mining for hidden gems? Panning for entertainment gold? Use whichever excavation metaphor you fancy, but your findings will stay the same: Netflix has some good stuff, some bad stuff, a lot in between, and digging through it all takes forever.

Since getting into the content production game with “Lilyhammer” in 2012, then breaking through with “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” in 2013, the pioneering streaming service has made thousands of hours of TV in dozens of different languages. From “BoJack Horseman” and “Arrested Development” to “The Queen’s Gambit” and “The Umbrella Academy,” the entertainment company once known for mailing DVDs en masse has become a producing powerhouse.

Netflix boasts consistently strong awards contenders in both drama and comedy categories at the annual Emmys (in addition to the streaming service’s handful of Oscar-recognized films). See “Russian Doll,” “Ozark,” “The Crown,” “Black Mirror,” and “The Kominsky Method...

The late “Sopranos” and “Goodfellas” alum Tony Sirico has received tributes from his former costars.

Sirico died Friday at age 79. His brother Robert confirmed Sirico’s death in a Facebook post.

“​It is with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories, that the family of Gennaro Anthony “Tony” Sirico wishes to inform you of his death on the morning of July 8, 2022,” the post reads.

His “Sopranos” co star Michael Imperioli was one of the first to announce and respond to the news of Sirico’s passing.

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Tony Sirico, ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Goodfellas’ Star, Dies at 79

“It pains me to say that my dear friend, colleague and partner in crime, the great Tony Sirico has passed away today. Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone i’ve ever known,” Imperioli wrote in an Instagram post.

Lorraine Bracco and Michael Imperioli were among “The Sopranos” stars who paid tribute to castmate Tony Sirico, who died Friday at the age of 79. Sirico played mobster Paulie Walnuts on the HBO series, and quickly became a scene-stealer with his deadpan humor.

Bracco, who portrayed Jennifer Melfi, wrote on Instagram: “I adore Tony Sirico. A stand up guy who always had my back and who loved my children and my parents. I have a lifetime of memories with Tony— starting with Goodfellas to The Sopranos and way beyond— but my God, did we have fun doing the Bensonhurst Spelling Bee—I’m still laughing. I hope he’s in heaven cracking everybody up now.”

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Imperioli took to Instagram to remember his “dear friend, colleague and partner in crime.”

“Tony was like no one else: he was as tough,...

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Tony Sirico, best known for his role as “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri on The Sopranos, has died. He was 79.

Sirico passed away Friday at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., according to his manager of 25 years Bob McGowan. No cause of death was revealed but Sirico had been suffering from dementia for the past couple years.

“Not only was he a loyal client, he was a good friend,” McGowan told The Hollywood Reporter.

Sirico portrayed “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri, a close confidante of James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano, on the HBO series.

His Sopranos co-star Michael Imperioli paid tribute to Sirico on his Instagram writing, “It pains me to say that my dear friend, colleague and partner in crime, the great Tony Sirico has passed away today. Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted...

Shout! Studios has acquired North American distribution rights to family film “Three Wishes for Cinderella,” starring Norwegian pop singer Astrid Smeplass, in a deal with Sola Media.

The retelling of the classic tale was a big hit in Norway, only outperformed by “No Time to Die” in last year’s box office. It is directed by Cecilie A. Mosli, whose credits include “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Other cast include Cengiz Al (“Skam”), Thorbjørn Harr (“Vikings”), Nasrin Khusrawi (“Lilyhammer”), Bjørn Sundquist (“Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters”), Kristofer Hivju (“Game of Thrones”), Ellen Dorrit (“The Worst Person in the World”), and Ingrid Giæver (“Thelma”).

Shout! has previously partnered with Sola on other family films, including “Snowtime,” “Swift” and “Dreambuilders.”

Solveig Langeland, managing director of Sola, said: “ ‘Three Wishes for Cinderella’ is a modern charming and atmospheric fairy tale suited for every generation. Our Cinderella is kind and beautiful yet independent and strong; she is...

Happy Friday readers. Tom Grater here looking back on the week’s top international headlines.

Mip TV Comes To An End

We got there eventually: The first Cannes-based Mip TV for three years took place earlier this week and, after some initial travel chaos that had the entire UK contingent scrabbling to reach Nice airport by Sunday night, things settled into a familiar pattern. In a sense, Mip TV felt like an extension of the previous fortnight’s Series Mania in that streamers and European talent were top of everyone’s talking-point lists. Delivering a keynote, HBO Max Global Boss Johannes Larcher talked up his streamer’s position in Europe, declaring “it’s not always best to be first.” Meanwhile, Candle Media Co-Founder Kevin Mayer, one of the founding fathers of Disney+, gave attendees a window into his strategy and Sony International Production Boss Wayne Garvie detailed grand ambitions to...

Exclusive: Leonard Cohen’s relationship with muse Marianne Ihlen is going under the microscope in a 1960s-set drama co-production for Norwegian broadcaster Nrk.

The UK’s Buccaneer Media and Dag and Lilyhammer writer Øystein Karlsen’s Oslo-based Redpoint Productions are co-producing So Long, Marianne with Canada’s Connect3 Media.

The 8×45 minutes series is billed by producers as an “intimate” story of “two equally lonely people falling in love in a period of their life when they are still trying to figure out who they are”.

Buccanneer is heading to Mip TV in Cannes this week to attract distributors and broadcasters.

A majority of the series will be set on the Greek island of Hydra where the pair met before starting a chaotic relationship that inspired the late singer-songwriter to pen songs such as ‘So Long, Marianne’, ‘That’s No Way To Say Goodbye’ and ‘Bird On The Wire...