*Actor Nicolas Cage has been tapped to portray Joe Exotic in a TV miniseries about the eccentric animal owner depicted in the “Tiger King” docuseries on Netflix.
According to ABC News, Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios are among the producers of the limited, eight-part project. It will explore how Joe Shreibvogel morphed into Joe Exotic and detail his journey to keep his Oklahoma zoo open “even at the risk of losing his sanity,” the producers said in a statement.
The seven-part “Tiger King” doc also deep dives into a murder-for-hire plot against Joe’s longtime rival, Carole Baskin. Joe is now serving a 22-year sentence related to that crime, and also multiple wildlife violations.
The Netflix series reportedly glossed over all the animals that were abused in his care. The filmmakers also opted not to shine the spotlight on Joe’s racism, with director Rebecca Chaiklin saying the racist angle “didn’t have a context in the story,” adding that he has a lot to learn. “I think most of it was ignorance and not having a lot of exposure and I think he even evolved over the course of the time that we filmed,” she explained.
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We can learn in Oklahoma how to love and respect each other just like animals do when you are truthful to them and no bullshit. #fixthisshit and lets make Oklahoma awesome again pic.twitter.com/xxTvQ7J73V
— Joe Exotic (@joe_exotic) May 29, 2018
Joe Exotic has been following his newfound fame through his husband Dillon Passage, who runs all of his social media.
The TV series is based on the Texas Monthly magazine article “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild” by Leif Reigstad.
Dan Laguna and producer Paul Young will write and executive produce the series.
In related news, Carole Baskin has been maintaining a low profile and avoiding the media since the Netflix doc dropped, but she was recently duped by YouTubers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners, who land the first major interview with her, by tricking Baskin into thinking she was talking to Jimmy Fallon, Variety reports.
“Here’s a chance where we could perhaps interview some high level talent because we are going under the guise of being a really famous show,” Pieters told Insider. “And we thought, why don’t we take a shot in the dark and go for the most exclusive, hard to reach person in the world, with absolutely no hope of it working?”
You can watch their interview with Carole below:
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