2021
Baltasar Kormákur shot Katla (2021), the eight-episode Netflix mystery series about a town living under an active volcano, in Iceland in and around Vík on the south coast in 2020.
The series was created by Kormákur with screenwriter Sigurjón Kjartansson and produced by Kormákur's own RVK Studios in Reykjavík. It was the first Icelandic Netflix Original series. The premise follows the residents of Vík a year after the Katla volcano begins to erupt, as ancient figures start to emerge from the ice.
Vík, south coast. Primary filming location. The town and its surroundings form the setting of the series, a community half-buried in ash from the Mýrdalsjökull-covered Katla volcano.
Reynisfjara, south coast. The black-sand beach immediately south of Vík, used for exterior scenes along the coast.
RVK Studios, Reykjavík. Interior sets built on the stage complex owned by Kormákur, opened on the outskirts of Reykjavík as the first purpose-built studio of its scale in Iceland.
Katla was the first Icelandic Netflix Original series, developed over several years before Netflix commissioned it in 2019. The writing team was Icelandic throughout, led by co-creator Sigurjón Kjartansson, and the shoot kept production on home ground, built around the volcano the series is named for. For Kormákur, the project both demonstrated and relied on RVK Studios' capacity: the complex, which he opened on the edge of Reykjavík, is the first of its scale in Iceland.
For specific enquiries, contact the Iceland Film Commission.
