Nicolas Cage (Face/Off, Leaving Las Vegas) will be making his first ever television appearance as Joe Exotic, the star of the Netflix docuseries, Tiger King. According to Variety, the eight-episode scripted series is based on the Texas Monthly article, “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild,” by Leif Reigstad. The show is being produced by Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios.
The series revolves around Joe Schreibvogel (Joe Exotic,) an exotic zookeeper residing in Oklahoma who is challenged with trying to keep his wildlife park in spite of being on the brink of insanity. Variety mentions that the story will focus on how Schreibvogel became Joe Exotic, and how exactly “he lost himself to a character of his own creation.” Amongst the crew that will be involved in the production of the series are the following:
James Seidman (A League of Their Own, Airplane!) and Natalie Berkus (Ten Fingers, Girls) from Imagine Television, Scott Brown (Castle Rock, Sharp Objects) and Megan Credyt (Incredible Shrinking Mega Man) as executive producers for Texas Monthly, Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13) and Samie Kim Falvey (Little Women, Midnight in Paris) as Imagine’s executive producers, Paul Young (Black-ish, Key and Peele) as executive producer for CBS via Make Good Content, and Dan Lagana (American Vandal, Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous) as the shows showrunner, writer and executive producer for CBS.
This project is only the second series that’s been announced in relation to the Tiger King. The Netflix docuseries was released on March 20 and gained instant popularity According to Variety, in the first ten days of streaming the docuseries, it is estimated to have reached an audience of 34.3 viewers, Nielsen data confirms.
The show is still untitled with no trailer, mention of other talent, or a possible premier date.