Amazon scraps planned Tiger King series

Wednesday 14 July 2021 by Charlotte Whyatt  News

Amazon Prime has decided not to move forward with its Tiger King TV series.

In what many have described as a perfect piece of casting, the project was set to star Nicolas Cage as the now infamous former zoo owner Joe Exotic. 

In a recent interview with Variety, the Academy-Award winner shared his thoughts on why the streamer decided to axe the show. 

“We should clear the record,” he said. “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 to 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.” 

Although Cage has officially exited the project, there’s still a chance that it could be shopped around to other outlets. 

The script for Amazon’s Tiger King was written by American Vandal’s Dan Lagana who was also set to serve as showrunner. 

While this news might come as a disappointment to those who were looking forward to seeing Cage bring his own brand of insanity to the role, there are still two other upcoming Tiger King projects to sink your teeth into. 

US streaming service Peacock is developing one that will star Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon as Joe Exotic’s bitter rival and fellow eccentric big cat owner Carole Baskin. 

This will reportedly be based on the second season of Wondery’s Over My Dead Body podcast which mainly told events from her perspective.  

Producer extraordinaire and American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy is also working on his own version, which could be either a TV series or a film, with Rob Lowe as Joe Exotic. 

You can stream the wildly popular docuseries that started it all, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, on Netflix now. 

Source: Metro