Sixty years after wealthy business magnate Thurston Howell III – as played by the legendary Jim Backus – was marooned on TV sitcom Gilligan’s Island, another rich bloke is about to end up surrounded by water.

However, unlike Howell – a one-time billionaire with assets including a diamond mine and a coconut plantation – who ended up on the island by accident, a new Fox broadcast network drama will focus on the world’s richest man, who flees to his private island with 200 employees as a global financial crisis takes hold.

 

Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III in Gilligan’s Island.

The series, with Australian showbizzer Hugh Jackman as an executive producer, will be made by Fox Entertainment Studios for the Fox network.

It has the working title Billionaire Apocalypse.

The program’s summary, known as a logline, reads: “The richest man on the planet, 200 of his employees, and his family are forced to flee to his private island in the wake of a global financial collapse, where the employees and family members – who he’s treated as afterthoughts for decades – quickly realise he’s no longer rich and thus no longer in charge.”

Fox Corp is only committed at this stage to the development of a script.

The drama is written and executive produced by Jay Carson, creator and writer of Apple+’s The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

No potential cast members have been announced.