Amazon recorded an eight-episode series starring Nicolas Cage as Joe Exotic, the owner of a big cat park in Oklahoma whose story has captivated a coronavirus-hit nation Tiger King. It will be the first television role in Cage's five decades of acting.
Cage's rep confirmed his role back in May but declined to go into detail about the show. Amazon Studios, which will produce the series, confirmed the pickup on Thursday.
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The series is based on the article Joe Exotic from Texas Monthly Magazine: A Dark Journey into the World of a Man gone wild by Leif Reigstad and comes from Imagine Entertainment and CBS TV Studios. (Disclosure: ViacomCBS is the parent company of CNET.)
Read: CNET's interview with Joel McHale, in which he talks about community and Tiger King.
Cage, 56, won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas. His other films include Adaptation, Moonstruck, Raising Arizona, Face / Off, and the films Ghost Rider and National Treasure. His quirky personality and looks as well as his unusual film selectionMake him an obvious natural to play Joe Exotic who's now serving one 22 years in Texas. Cage's name appeared often in dream casting articles for a scripted Joe Exotic story - including the CNET version.
The idea of Cage playing the troubled zoo owner caught the imagination of fans almost from the start. The late night host Jimmy Fallon even dressed me in a mullet and a flashy shirtImic Cage imitates Joe Exotic - and it's pretty perfect.
Dan Lagana, whose quirky Netflix mockumentary American Vandal was a Netflix hit in 2017, will be the showrunner.
After the debut of Netflix's documentaries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness in March, the life and times of Joe Exotic became one hot hollywood property. Netflix added one Aftershow episode by Joel McHaleProducer Rick Kirkham offered one Pay-per-view specialThe Investigation Discovery Network is planning a series, and there is even another miniseries.
NBC Universal picked a popular podcast on Joe Exotic and cast the Saturday Night Live comedian Kate McKinnon as Joe's archenemy, animal activist Carole Baskin. And Baskin has now been cast in the new season of ABC's Dancing With the Stars, in which their first song - duh - Survivor's 1982 hit, Eye of the Tiger, will be.
