Nicolas Cage to Play Joe Exotic in Scripted Series About Tiger King Star
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Film star Nicolas Cage is making the jump to television, thanks to a certain bleach blonde zoo owner.
The Oscar winner has signed on to play Joe Exotic in a scripted series about the Tiger King personality, according to our sister publication Variety.
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The eight-episode project — which will be shopped to networks later this month — is based on the Texas Monthly article “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild,” which was published several months before Netflix’s buzzy docuseries dropped. It will center on the eccentric zookeeper Joe Schreibvogel, better known as Joe Exotic, who fights to keep his park “even at the risk of losing his sanity.” The show also will explore how Schreibvogel became Joe Exotic, chronicling “how he lost himself to a character of his own creation.”
Dan Lagana (American Vandal) will serve as writer, executive producer and showrunner on the project, which is being produced by Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios. The show will also mark Cage’s first television role.
This is the second in-the-works scripted series to capitalize on Tiger King‘s considerable popularity. As previously reported, Universal Content Productions is also developing a limited series inspired by the doc, which will star Saturday Night Live‘s Kate McKinnon as Big Cat Rescue CEO Carole Baskin. The role of Joe Exotic has not yet been filled in UCP’s series — but TVLine readers have some thoughts on who should play him.
What do you think of Cage playing Joe Exotic? Tell us in the comments!
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