Tiger King Series With Nic Cage as Joe Exotic In Development at Amazon

Netflix’s Tiger King has inspired a wave of TV series adaptations, and the one starring Nicolas Cage as Joe Exotic his landed a development deal over at Amazon. The series is based on the article “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild” by Texas Monthly writer Leif Reigstad; it will explore how Joe Exotic grows increasingly erratic and dangerous in order to hold on to his exotic cat zoo, as well as the backstory of how the man named Joseph Allen Schreibvogel became “Joe Exotic,” and eventually rode that wild persona all the way to ruin, and a prison sentence.

As Variety reports, Dan Lagana will serve as writer, showrunner, and executive producer of the series. Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer and Samie Kim Falvey will also executive produce. Cage will also exec produce through Saturn Films, and Scott Brown and Megan Creydt will serve as exec producers on behalf of Texas Monthly.

For those keeping count, this Nic Cage as Joe Exotic series at Amazon is the second Tiger King adaptation announced for TV in recent weeks. The other high-profile series from the Tiger King world is the one starring SNL‘s Kate McKinnon as Carole Baskin. That series has been picked up by NBC for development on the network’s Peacock streaming service.

The best part of this twisted, deranged, and outright demented Tiger King saga is that it’s not over yet! In real life, the drama is still unfolding: New scandal over Carole Baskin’s missing husband is arising; Joe Exotic is begging President Trump for a pardon; and we’ll soon get to see a lighter side of Carole Baskin on Dancing With the Stars.

With is kind of on-brand material to work with, these Tiger King TV series can run for quite a few season. Even after they’re done running through all the years of material featured in the Netflix documentary there’s still all the backstory of major figures like Joe and Carole to comb through – and now the unfolding stories of their lives in present day. That’s all to say: the networks getting in on this material now are likely making shrewd moves, as Tiger King doesn’t look like it’ll be fading away anytime soon.

If you (somehow) are the rare Nic Cage fans that hasn’t seen the Netflix series, here’s the Tiger King synopsis:

“Among the eccentrics and cult personalities in the stranger-than-fiction world of big cat owners, few stand out more than Joe Exotic, a mulleted, gun-toting polygamist and country western singer who presides over an Oklahoma roadside zoo. Charismatic but misguided, Joe and an unbelievable cast of characters including drug kingpins, conmen, and cult leaders all share a passion for big cats, and the status and attention their dangerous menageries garner. But things take a dark turn when Carole Baskin, an animal activist and owner of a big cat sanctuary, threatens to put them out of business, stoking a rivalry that eventually leads to Joe’s arrest for a murder-for-hire plot, and reveals a twisted tale where the only thing more dangerous than a big cat is its owner.”

Tiger King is still streaming on Netflix. No date on when the TV series with Nic Cage will arrive.