Variety – Nicolas Cage is set to star in a scripted series centered on Joe Exotic, the subject of the Netflix docuseries “Tiger King,” Variety has learned exclusively.

The eight-episode series is being produced by Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios. It will be taken to market in the coming days. It is based on the Texas Monthly article “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild,” by Leif Reigstad.

What a time to be alive. I fought against Tiger King for about a week before I caved because I’m a contrarian by nature. If everyone likes it so much it must be pandering garbage for simpleminded people was my original thinking. I watched the first ep and thought okay this white trash asshole illegally buys and sells tigers, why do I need 7 more hours of this? Well when I dipped my toe back into the tiger infested waters a couple of days later, I ended up watching the remaining 7 episodes in one sitting.

Joe Exotic is undeniably a white trash asshole that deserves to be in jail for murdering endangered animals, but my goodness is the man fascinating. Besides the fact that Exotic is as he describes himself ” the gay, gun-carrying redneck with a mullet,” the Netflix series was so fascinating because it followed a man down a completely self destructive path despite having every reason to avoid rocking the boat. I mean the man married two guys at once rocking a cowboy hat, repeatedly threatened to murder his arch nemesis on YouTube, and even ran a competitive campaign for Governor of Oklahoma.

You’ve all seen the greek tragedy that is Tiger King so I won’t recite all the details, but in all seriousness WHO better to play Joe Exotic than Nicolas Cage? Is there anyone other than this guy you’d want taking this role?

Nic Cage has perfected the art of playing an absolute lunatic and losing his shit in just about every movie he’s in. Now picture him with a bleached blonde mullet threatening to murder a fellow zoo owner while he wrestles tigers and his two husbands smoke a billion pounds of meth in the office? I really don’t want to glorify the Tiger King any more than he already has been, but goddamnit I can’t quit you Joe Exotic.

Apparently Kate McKinnon also has a Tiger King show of her own on the horizon as she’s set to portray Carole Baskins. So this dysfunctional group of characters isn’t going anywhere for a while.