Nicolas Cage will undertake the first television series role of his career as Joe Exotic, the subject of Netflix's popular docuseries "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness," in an upcoming scripted show.
The eight-episode limited series is inspired by Joe Schreibvogel, the real-life Oklahoma zookeeper who is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for planning a murder-for-hire plot targeting animal rights activist Carole Baskin and for more than a dozen wildlife violations, including killing five tigers. The untitled project will "explore how he became Joe Exotic, and how he lost himself to a character of his own creation," according to a statement from ViacomCBS.
Dan Lagana, the Peabody-Award winning showrunner of "American Vandal," is set to be an executive producer and the showrunner of the series, which will be produced by Imagine Television Studios, CBS Television Studios, Make Good Content, Saturn Films and Texas Monthly.
Netflix's "Tiger King" premiered in March to record viewership. Schreibvogel's story has also inspired a forthcoming Universal Content Productions show, which will star Kate McKinnon of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" as Baskin.
