Nicolas Cage cast as ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic in scripted mini-series

Nicolas Cage will be the Tiger King.

On Monday, Variety reported that the actor has been cast as Joe Exotic, the subject of the Netflix documentary series “Tiger King,” in a CBS mini-series. This will be Cage’s first television role in his career.  

The eight episode series will be produced by Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television studios and based on the Texas Monthly article “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild,” by Leif Reigstad. The article had been optioned by CBS in June 2019.

The show will center around Joe Schreibvogel, a.k.a Joe Exotic, an eccentric zookeeper in Oklahoma. 

This is the second scripted TV series that has been announced that will delve into the world of “Tiger King.” Universal Content Productions had snagged “Saturday Night Live” star Kate McKinnon to star as Carole Baskin, an animal rights activist and Joe Exotic’s rival. 

“Tiger King” arrived on Netflix on March 20 and quickly became part of the cultural zeitgeist. According to Nielsen data, the show reached an audience of 34.3 million unique viewers in its first 10 days on the service.

Read the full report from Variety.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.