The White Lotus season 2 breakout Adam DiMarco (Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, Overcompensating) is attached to star in the drama Dark Ocean, the debut feature film from Glassriver, the Icelandic TV and film production company.
The Canadian actor is set to star opposite previously announced cast members, namely local Icelandic actor, producer and director Baltasar Kormákur (Everest, Adrift, The Beast, Apex, 2 Guns) and Icelandic-American actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Severance, Your Friends & Neighbors, True Detective, The Deep).
Dark Ocean follows Hákon (DiMarco), a 28-year-old Canadian-born Icelander who has lived in Iceland for only three years. Hoping to provide for his girlfriend, who is expecting their first child, he joins a North Atlantic fishing trawler for his first long voyage at sea. However, life aboard the vessel is far harsher than he anticipated. Struggling with both the unforgiving ocean and the unforgiving crew, Hákon must adapt to a brutal environment governed by its own rules. As tensions rise and lives are put at risk, Hákon confronts the psychological cost of survival in an isolated, hyper-masculine world shaped by grief, silence and toxic masculinity.
Kormákur is set to play Captain Andri, with Ólafsson attached to portray a character named Höddi. Additional names are set to be unveiled soon.
The film is a co-production with Terminal City Pictures in Canada, with Rocket Science handling worldwide sales.
The director and producer is Glassriver co-owner Baldvin Z (Black Sands, Case, Let Me Fall, Life in a Fishbowl, Jitters), with Matthías Tryggvi Haraldsson (Síðustu dagar Sæunnar, Griðastaður/Refuge) serving as the screenwriter. Additional producers are Guðgeir “Gucci” Arngrímsson (Odd Fish, From Iceland to Eden, Albatross) for Glassriver and Christine Haebler (Monkey Man, French Exit, Hector, The Search of Happiness) for Terminal City Pictures.
Also on board are film editor Valdís Óskarsdóttir (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kursk/The Command, Lost River, Submarino), as well as the Canadian film composer Anne Nikitin (Scoop, American Animals, Four Letters of Love, Lost Girls).
Filming is due to start in March 2027, with shooting planned across Iceland and St. Johns in the Canadian province of Newfoundland.
Baldvin Z said about DiMarco: “I’ve been looking for Hákon for a long time. He needed to be someone who could walk into this brutal world of men as an outsider and allow us to experience it through his eyes. Adam has a vulnerability and warmth that immediately drew me to him, but there’s also something unpredictable underneath – a quiet strength that feels completely right for Hákon. At its heart, Dark Ocean is about belonging and about the systems that shape young men into the men they become.”
Haebler said about the film: “Projects like Dark Ocean don’t come along very often. It’s an honour to be working with this exceptional cast and the talented Glassriver team.”
Glassriver’s scripted series slate includes Avalanche, a co-production with Whatevergroup, Konráð, based on the book series by Arnaldur Indriðason, and the literary adaptation Reykjavik Noir, based on Lilja Sigurðardóttir’s novels. Also on the slate is Hot Stuff, an Icelandic-Romanian co-production with IDEA Film, Tango Metal, an Icelandic-Finnish co-production with Helsinki-filmi, and Black Sands, which has premiered on Channel 2 in Iceland.