Amazon Studios Officially Nabs Joe Exotic TV Show Starring Nicolas Cage

Back in May, we heard that a TV show based on Joe Exotic, the subject of popular Netflix documentary Tiger King, was being shopped around with Nicolas Cage attached for the starring role. Fast-forward a few months and it has been confirmed that Amazon Studios has nabbed the series for the company's Prime Video streaming service. As expected, the show will be scripted.

The show was first reported by Variety back in May; it has now confirmed that Amazon Studios is on board with the show alongside CBS TV Studios and Imagine Television. The scripted show will be based on Leif Reigstad's Texas Monthly article titled Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild.

The public was first introduced to the man best known as Joe Exotic via the Netflix docu-series Tiger King. Given the massive popularity of this show and the memes it spawned, it shouldn't be surprising that another service would want to double-tap the character to get in on the popularity. Who better to play such an eccentric person than Nicolas Cage?

According to the latest report, the scripted TV show will involve Cage playing Joe Shreibvogel and will chronicle his descent into becoming Joe Exotic, the zookeeper behind a park in Oklahoma. Make Good Content's Paul Young will serve as executive producer alongside Dan Lagana, among others, who is also the series showrunner and writer.

In case you feel like you've heard this announcement before, you probably have, just for a different service. We previously heard that NBC's Peacock and USA Network are working on a similar series based on the character Carol Baskin who will be played by Kate McKinnon. It's unclear when either of these shows will premiere.