We should have seen it coming—if anyone was ever perfect to play the most eccentric real-life figure to hit the mainstream public in years, it had to be Nicolas Cage, right? In the first television role of his career, the National Treasure actor is set to take on a fictionalized role of Joe Exotic in a scripted series based on the breakout Netflix docuseries Tiger King, according to a recent report from Variety.
According to the publication, the eight-episode series will be based on the September 2019 article from Texas Monthly and will be produced by CBS Television Studios. The show will be written by Dan Lagana (known for his work on American Vandal) and Paul Young as a part of a larger deal with the network. Cage will also executive produce the show through his production company, Saturn Films.
The story plans to focus on Exotic (née Joe Schreibvogel), the zookeeper that fans of the docuseries got to know (and maybe love?) and his fight to keep the Greater Wynnewood Zoo open to the point of losing both his mind and his freedom. Variety also reports that the series “will live in the den with Joe, explore how he became Joe Exotic and how he lost himself to a character of his own creation.”
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Viewers got to know Exotic and the people surrounding him in late March when Tiger King premiered on Netflix. It quickly became one of the top-rated shows to premiere on the streaming site (averaging 34.3 million viewers within its first ten days) and stayed in the network’s Top 10 for the rest of the month. A reunion episode, called The Tiger King and I, was hosted by Joel McHale and hit Netflix not long after.
This would also be the second scripted series to come from the success of the story. Kate McKinnon has also been attached to portray Carole Baskin in an entirely different scripted show based on the same wild story (unlike this one, McKinnon’s show will be based on the Wondery podcast “Joe Exotic: Tiger King”).
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