It seems like a lifetime ago that the world became obsessed with Netflix docu-series Tiger King and the bizarre look into the life of zookeeper Joe Exotic dominated the cultural conversation for weeks. You might find this hard to believe given how drastically things have changed since then, but the seven-episode run of Tiger King only dropped less than six months ago.
The buzz has worn off somewhat since then as plenty of other newsworthy developments have dominated the headlines, but there are still multiple scripted adaptations in the work, although none of them will star Dwayne Johnson after he was too late to the party when it came to acquiring the rights.
Kate McKinnon will feature as Carole Baskin in a show that’s currently set up at NBCUniversal, while Rob Lowe and American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy are teaming up for another. However, the most intriguing by far is the series that will star Nicolas Cage as Joe Exotic, if only because that particular marriage of actor and character has the potential to be something truly special or completely insane. Either way, it won’t be anything other than fascinatingly watchable.
Cage’s version was originally set up at CBS, but now Amazon have stepped in to assist with production on the eight-episode series, presumably with an eye on debuting it exclusively on their streaming service. And if the leading man throws himself headfirst into the role and doesn’t phone it in like the majority of his recent performances, then seeing him strut around as Tiger King‘s Joe Exotic will easily be one of the biggest and quite possibly best things to happen on television for a very long time.