In a bit of breaking news, THR has announced that Nicolas Cage will be playing Tiger King star Joe Exotic in an eight-episode scripted series about the imprisoned “zoo” owner for CBS Television Studios and Imagine Television. The series will come to us from Dan Lagana (American Vandal), who optioned the project with Paul Young last summer before Netflix turned Joe Exotic into a household name and meme legend.
We are not sure where the series will land as CBS TV Studios is currently searching for potential buyers. We do know the show will feature Exotic as he “fights to keep his animal park even at the risk of losing his sanity.” We also know that the series will explore how Exotic became Exotic and how he “lost himself to a character of his own creation.” It sounds a bit sympathetic to the man and I don’t know how I feel about that.
I think that Cage as Exotic is a bit of casting that is maybe too on-the-nose. It is definitely a choice that shouldn’t surprise anyone, given Cage’s eccentric personality and his near-maniacal desire to play wild characters. So there is no doubt that Cage will act the hell out of this role. Nicolas Cage playing a crazy person? Done and done!
You have to wonder what this news does to the other Tiger King-inspired projects in the pipeline. Last we checked, there were like two dozen shows being created about the Netflix sensation. But now that Nicolas Cage is headlining this one and it is likely to be the biggest of the bunch, perhaps a few others will fade away. That’s probably for the best, I think we have all gotten our fill of Joe Exotic for awhile.