Kate McKinnon to star in scripted spin-off of Tiger King, the true crime doc about a gay redneck who owns hundreds of tigers
Kate McKinnon is reportedly signed on to play Carol Baskin in the Tiger King adaptation
The story of Joe Exotic, the criminal gay polygamist redneck exotic animal breeder at the heart of Netflix documentary Tiger King, is set to get a drama adaptation.
SNL star Kate McKinnon is reportedly in line to play Carole Baskin – the CEO of Big Cat Rescue who the zoo owner was jailed for attempting to murder – in the new limited TV series.
According to TV Line, the project being worked on at Universal Content Productions will be officially based on the Joe Exotic: Tiger King podcast produced by Wondery before the documentary’s release.
Think of it as The Assassination of Gianni Versace, but with more tigers and less shots of a half-naked Darren Criss.
Drama series will tell Tiger King story from a different angle.
Like the Netflix docuseries, the drama will revolve around the years-long battle between Baskin and Joe Exotic, real name Joseph Schreibvogel Maldonado-Passage, who was the self-proclaimed king of the shady exotic animal underworld.
There’s no news yet on who will play Exotic himself, with surely only a handful of actors in the right age bracket able to play his off-the-walls personality.
‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic was jailed for trying to have an animal rights activist murdered
However, TV Line reports that signs are good for the project, which remains “in active development”. Frankly, we’re ready to order the inevitable stage musical adaptation as well.
There’s been a glut of LGBT+ criminal documentaries in recent months, with Don’t F**k With Cats and Killer Inside, which are based on murderers Luka Magnotta and Aaron Hernandez, also dropping on Neflix.
Who is Joe Exotic?
The larger-than-life figure ran the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, a private park in Oklahoma known for breeding a large collection of tigers, lions and other big cats.
The park, which is reviled by animal rights activists, also offers for-profit ‘cub petting’ with baby tigers – considered a form of animal cruelty.
Exotic also ran for president in 2016 and somehow managed not to be the worst candidate.
Tiger King tracks Joe Exotic as the wheels slowly start to come off of both his business and personal life – culminating in the accidental death of one of his husbands, and his eventual imprisonment for attempting to have Carole Baskin murdered.
