It feels like a lifetime ago that Netflix’s Tiger King was dominating the cultural conversation, but it’s only been sixteen months since the wild docuseries premiered. As the first major show of the pandemic era to seize the zeitgeist, it was hardly surprising that a slew of dramatizations based on the bonkers world of Joe Exotic would be fired into active development.
Arguably the most exciting was Amazon’s planned re-telling, based on nothing other than the fact Nicolas Cage had signed on to play the lead role. The actor has become more meme than man these days, and the prospect of him throwing on a mullet wig and growing out a mustache to embody the eccentric Exotic was a fascinating idea to say the least.
However, the Academy Award winner revealed in a new interview that he’s no longer attached to the streaming series, after admitting that the amount of time spent trying to put it together behind the scenes has already seen Tiger King become culturally irrelevant, with Amazon no longer actively working on the project.
“We should clear the record. I read two excellent scripts, which I did think were excellent, but I think Amazon ultimately felt that it was material that had become past tense because it took so long for it come together. They felt at one point that it was lightning in a bottle, but that point has since faded into the distance and it’s no longer relevant.”
Despite Cage’s version hitting the skids, as far as we know there are at least two Tiger King adaptations still in the works. Kate McKinnon is set to play Carole Baskin in one version that was announced to be heading straight to Peacock just a couple of months back, although it’s been a while since we’ve heard anything surrounding Ryan Murphy and Rob Lowe’s Netflix effort.
You can’t help but agree with Cage’s sentiments that Joe Exotic’s moment in the sun has passed, and there might not be much of an appetite for seeing the story brought to life several times over when it’s long since passed its peak at the forefront of pop culture.