Every now and again, news breaks of a project that seems designed to send the internet into a tizzy. For instance, consider this: Nicolas Cage will soon make his television debut by playing viral Tiger King scourge Joe Exotic in an eight-episode series from American Vandal showrunner Dan Lagana.
According to Variety, Lagana and fellow executive producer Paul Young have optioned Texas Monthly writer Leif Reigstad’s article “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild” for an eight-episode series. In addition to playing the self-described “gay, gun-toting cowboy with a mullet,” Cage will also executive produce.
Netflix’s docu-series, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, was a massive success both in ratings and online, where a wave of memes sprang up practically overnight. The series largely centers on Joe Exotic’s spiral as he attempts to keep his zoo together and becomes increasingly obsessed with Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin, who he insists killed her husband.
The new, Cage-starring series, which Variety notes will soon go to market, is just one of several projects inspired by the wild story of Joe Exotic. Months before the Netflix series premiered, Baskin landed a biopic of her own—starring Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon. Dream-casting who might play him in a series of his own, Joe Exotic has pitched Brad Pitt and “Joe Dirt,” AKA David Spade, as top contenders—but we’re guessing, given his appetite for notoriety, that Nic Cage will also do just fine.
