Ever since Tiger King became a surprise mega-hit for Netflix in the era of social distancing, everyone was talking about how some channel is going to pick this story up and make it into a TV show or drama.
There were speculations on who would get to play the main characters.
Today, it turned out that the said company was CBS and Imagine Television Studios. According to Variety, Nicolas Cage has been casted to play Joe Exotic, the owner of a private zoo and the main character of Netflix’s docuseries.
The creator of the original documentary had said that Exotic wanted Brad Pitt or Daniel Spade of all people to portray him. Other actors such as Kevin Bacon have also been suggested as he was famous around Tinseltown for his eccentricities.
From what has been released about the production, the program will be 8 episodes long. Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild is the title as of this writing. Leif Reigstad, who writes for the Texas Monthly, is known to be the writer for this script.
The plot of the program will be similar to that of Tiger King, but with a much more concentrated look into Joe Exotic’s psyche. Creators have also promised that viewers will get to hear new stories from the eccentric zookeeper.
As of now, the rest of the casting is not known. Many fans are interested as to which actress will play Carole Baskin, arguably the second most prominent individual from the Netflix original.
It is known that a separate production is working on the story of Baskin’s ex-husband who has been missing since he allegedly left for Costa Rica. As the main plot thread of the third episode, it stirred massive controversy and conspiracy theories online. Exotic argued that Baskin fed her husband to the big cats after killing him, which she has vehemently denied.
Exotic has been sentenced to 22-years of imprisonment for hiring a hitman to kill Baskin. Exotic himself had denied any wrongdoing. After the show gained popularity, some fans had even petitioned the president to exonerate and pardon Exotic.
Nevertheless, we are interested to see how Cage will portray someone who is as idiosyncratic as he is. Share with us your thoughts on this story in the comments.
Replaced!