Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage to play Joe Exotic in new series
"Tiger King," Netflix's hit documentary, is becoming a TV series, with none other than Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage starring as Joe Exotic.
The project will be an eight-episode limited series, based on a Texas Monthly story, "Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild," by Leif Reigstad, ABC News has confirmed.
Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is the former owner of the G.W. Zoo ("The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park") in Oklahoma. He is currently serving a 22-year sentence for a murder-for-hire plot and animal abuse charges.
This will be Cage's first project for the small screen. It's being produced by CBS TV Studios, with Dan Lagana, one of the forces behind the hit mockumentary "American Vandal," serving as executive producer and showrunner.
Other executive producers include Brian Glazer, Paul Young, Scott Brown, Megan Creydt and Samie Kim Falvey.
This project is still in development. According to the Hollywood Reporter, "The scripted project, currently titled Joe Exotic, will center 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."
