Nicolas Cage Is Going To Play Joe Exotic, Bringing Us Ever Closer To The Meme Singularity

In what is possibly the most on-the-nose casting in television history, Nicolas Cage will be playing Joe Exotic in an upcoming television series produced by CBS TV and Imagine Studios.

Cage, well known for playing characters who often lose their shit in film, will make his television debut playing the subject of Tiger King, the wildly popular and very bonkers Netflix documentary series. The series was optioned by Americal Vandal showrunner Dan Lagana in June of 2019, well before Netflix kicked off the Tiger King phenomenon. Cage entered talks to play Joe in April of 2020.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series, tentatively titled Joe Exotic, will "explore how Joe became Joe Exotic and how he lost himself to a character of his own creation."

The series will be based on a Texas Monthly article about Exotic published in 2019. It is unrelated to the Kate McKinnon-led serialization of the Joe Exotic story that is also in production.