National Treasure star Nicolas Cage is all set to portray Joe Exotic in an upcoming eight-part series. The series is being produced by Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios. It’ll be based on the Texas Monthly article “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild,” by Leif Reigstad. The CBS series will be Cage’s first TV show.
Reportedly, this eight-part series was decided well before Netflix came up with the docu-series Tiger King. American Vandal showrunner Dan Lagana, who has an overall deal at CBS TV Studios, and Paul Young optioned the article back in June 2019. However, the showrunners currently don’t have any buyers but they promise to announce that very soon. Along with playing the titular character Nicholas will also executive produce via Saturn Films.
The show will follow Joe’s life and journey of him becoming Joe Exotic and details of his effort to keep his Oklahoma zoo open “even at the risk of losing his sanity,” the producers said in a statement on Monday. This will be a second scripted show on Joe as Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon is set to produce and play Joe’s Subash Carole Baskin in a show based on Wondery’s Joe Exotic podcast and it has been in the works since November.
Netflix’s Tiger King has made Joe Exotic an object of fascination and controversy. He is now known as Joseph Maldonado-Passage and is serving a federal prison sentence for his conviction in a murder-for-hire plot and for animal abuse. After its announcement, many fans were excited while some of them thought Nicolas Cage is a perfect choice to play the part.
Nicolas Cage being cast as Joe Exotic is the most surprising/unsurprising thing to happen
— Vanilla Zaku (@ZinZaku) May 5, 2020
Possibly the best casting decision ever… Nicolas Cage to play Joe Exotic in Tiger King miniseries https://t.co/NIgog9otKJ
— AJ Kirby (@ajkirbyauthor) May 5, 2020
In other news, Nicolas Cage has apparently been cast as The Tiger King and it’s reassuring to know they’ve hired crazy to play crazy
— Conor (@Conor_JRiley) May 5, 2020
#NicolasCage to play #TigerKing they really couldn’t pick a better person if they tried it’s perfect
— Peyk (@peykersozlu) May 5, 2020