Nicholas Cage to play Tiger King

Actor Nicholas Cage will undertake his first TV role as ‘Joe Exotic’ in a planned scripted series from CBS Television Studios and Imagine Television.

The project is based on Texas Monthly article which was published an optioned in June 2019, well before Netflix’s breakout Tiger King hit screens.

Currently titled Joe Exotic, will centre on Joe as he fights to keep his animal park even at the risk of losing his sanity. It will explore how Joe became Joe Exotic and how he lost himself to a character of his own creation.

The Hollywood Reporter notes Cage had been in talks to play the lead role since April. He has only ever had one Pilot role, in 1981’s The Best of Times which was never picked up.

Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon is also set to executive produce and play Baskin in a show from Universal Content Productions based on a Joe Exotic podcast.