Nicolas Cage to play ‘Tiger King’s’ Joe Exotic in dramatic mini-series
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com/ Reuters) – Nicolas Cage is set to star in a scripted series centered on Joe Exotic, the subject of the Netflix docuseries Tiger King.
The eight-episode series is being produced by Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios. It is based on the Texas Monthly article “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild,” by Leif Reigstad.
The story centers around Joe Schreibvogel, a.k.a Joe Exotic, an eccentric, exotic zookeeper in Oklahoma who fights to keep his park even at the risk of losing his sanity. The series will live in the lion’s den with Joe, explore how he became Joe Exotic, and how he lost himself to a character of his own creation.
The role marks the first television role of Cage’s career. He has long been praised for his film work, having won the Academy Award for best actor for Leaving Las Vegas and getting a nomination in the same category for Adaptation. He is also known for his starring roles in films like Moonstruck,
Raising Arizona, Face/ Off, and the National Treasure and Ghost Rider films. He also recently lent his voice to the Oscar-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.
His upcoming films include The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Pig.
This is the second announced scripted series about the bizarre world of Tiger King. The first scripted series was announced late last year. Kate McKinnon is attached to star in and executive produce a series based on the Wondery podcast “Joe Exotic,” with McKinnon attached to play Carole Baskin. That series hails from Universal Content Productions. According to sources, the studio is still seeking a writer for the project.
The Tiger King docuseries dropped on March 20 and quickly became a media sensation. Variety reported that the series is estimated to have reached an audience of 34.3 million unique viewers in its first 10 days of availability, according to Nielsen data.