Nicolas Cage set to play Joe Exotic in 'Tiger King' drama miniseries

Nicolas Cage is to play Joe Exotic, the flamboyant zoo owner and big cat enthusiast at the centre of Netflix hit Tiger King, in a new drama miniseries.

Variety reports that the show will be made by Dan Lagana, who was behind the Netflix true-crime parody American Vandal.

The drama, made up of eight episodes, will be based on an article for Texas Monthly by Leif Reigstad called Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild, which was published in June 2019.

It centres on the bizarre life of Joe Schreibvogel, the focus of the Netflix docu-series, who kept a wealth of big cats and other animals at his zoo in Oklahoma, and later branded himself ‘Joe Exotic’.

Per Variety, “the series will live in the lion’s den with Joe, explore how he became Joe Exotic, and how he lost himself to a character of his own creation”.

However, it's not the only drama project to take on the stranger-than-fiction tale.

Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon is also set to star as Carole Baskin, Joe Exotic's nemesis, in a series based on the podcast Joe Exotic: Tiger King, made by US podcast network Wondery.

McKinnon's project was announced in November last year, before the Netflix series was released.

The Netflix series became a lockdown sensation, following its release on 20 March this year.

According to Nielsen, 34.4 million people watched the series in its first 10 days on release, making it one of Netflix biggest hits.