Nicolas Cage’s scripted series based on Joe Exotic, the Tiger King, received a greenlight from Amazon Prime.
Set for an eight-episode run, the still-untitled series will follow the rise and fall of the owner of big cat park in Oklahoma. Joe Exotic shot to global fame at the height of the coronavirus lockdown in March. Netflix released the true-crime documentary series, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, while everyone was staying home.
Representatives of Cage confirmed in May that the actor was keen on playing the eccentric character. However, details about the show were not revealed until Thursday, Sept. 10, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The show will take points from the articles that appeared in Texas Monthly. Leif Reigstad wrote a series of stories titled Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild. It explored how Joe Shreibvogel became Joe Exotic and created a massive empire that also destroyed his life.
Cage’s very first starring role on TV
The Tiger King series will be Cage’s first starring role on television in his lengthy five decades of acting in Hollywood. The actor, 56, gained critical recognition at the Academy Awards for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995. He also starred in movies like Face/Off, Moonstruck, Ghost Rider and Disney’s National Treasure trilogy.
Cage was a fan-favorite choice for Joe Exotic when Tiger King viewers came up with a dream cast. Developing the series for Amazon Studios will be Dan Lagana, who worked on the Netflix mockumentary American Vandal.
Not tied to Kate McKinnon’s show
But Cage and Lagana aren’t the only ones developing a show about the Tiger King. Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon is also doing a series about the big cat owner for NBCUniversal’s streaming service.
McKinnon’s show has claimed the working title Joe Exotic, which will be based on the podcast Over My Dead Body, per Deadline. It will center on the man’s nemesis, the animal activist Carole Baskin (McKinnon), whom he accused of feeding her husband’s body to her tigers. McKinnon’s production has yet to cast the role of Schreibvogel.
Incidentally, Baskin will also be on television in the next few months. She recently signed on for the new season of Dancing With the Stars. According to reports, Baskin’s first song in the competition will be apt – “Eye of the Tiger.”
Meanwhile, amid all this fanfare, Joe Exotic remains in prison for animal abuse and for ordering to kill Baskin. The big cat zoo owner’s Oklahoma property has reportedly been shut down for good.
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