Nicolas Cage set to play Tiger King's Joe Exotic in new TV show

Nicolas Cage is set to star in a new TV show based on Joe Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, of Netflix's Tiger King docuseries.

Variety reports the show will be an eight-episode series and will be based on the Texas Monthly article 'Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into The World Of A Man Gone Wild', by Leif Reigstad.

The story is about the eccentric exotic zookeeper who fights to keep his park, despite the toll it will take on his sanity. It will explore how Joe went from Joe Schreibvogel to Joe Exotic and how he lost himself to the character he created.

This will be the first regular TV work of Nicolas Cage's career. He is best known for his film work, even winning an Oscar for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas.

This will be the second scripted series about Joe Exotic and the world of Tiger King, with the first series to be based on the Wondery podcast Joe Exotic, with Kate McKinnon set to star as Joe’s nemesis Carole Baskin.

Tiger King has been insanely popular, with Variety reporting more than 34 million people watched the show within the first 10 days of its release.

Nicolas might just be the perfect man for the job, given his own larger than life antics including buying a pyramid-shaped mausoleum that is believed to be the place he wishes to be buried.

He's also known for his method acting, with his Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance co-star Idris Elba revealing in a Reddit AMA Nicolas once slept in "Dracula's castle" in Romania.

The actor even accidentally bought a stolen Tyrannosaurus bataar skull in 2007. He was contacted by the Department of Homeland Security in 2014 and told it was stolen from Mongolia's Gobi Desert and agreed to hand it over.

Joe Exotic is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for his murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin as well as 17 charges of animal abuse.

Another Tiger King spin-off is set to focus on the disappearance of Carole Baskin’s husband Don Lewis.

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