Tiger King TV series to star Nicolas Cage in role of colourful zookeeper Joe Exotic
- Oscar-winning actor Cage will play Joe Exotic – a gay, mullet-wearing private-zoo owner now in prison for murder-for-hire – in eight-part CBS production
- A Netflix documentary series about Exotic was watched by a reported 34 million times in just 10 days following its release in March
Nicolas Cage will star in a scripted television series about flamboyant Tiger King zookeeper Joe Exotic.
The Oscar-winning US actor will also executive-produce the show, based on a magazine article about Exotic, who recently shot to fame as the subject of a wildly popular documentary series.
The surreal story of Exotic – a gay, mullet-wearing private-zoo owner now in prison for murder-for-hire – became an American cultural phenomenon following the release of the Netflix docuseries.
Tiger King was watched a reported 34 million times in just 10 days following its release in March, providing welcome relief in a nation under coronavirus lockdown.
Cage’s series will be his first major foray into television, and is the second scripted show known to be in the works about Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage.