Amazon’s Joe Exotic series starring Nicolas Cage has opted not to proceed with the actor in an interview saying the show is no longer relevant and won’t be playing Tiger King‘s Joe Exotic.
The actor, 57, revealed in an interview with Variety that he’s no longer attached to the role in Amazon’s Joe Exotic series about the Oklahoma zookeeper-turned-convicted felon, hinting that the entire project has been shelved.
“We should clear the record,” Cage 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 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,” he added.
Cage’s role as Exotic (né Joseph Maldonado-Passage) would have been his first-ever TV gig.
News of the project first came in May, when it was reported that an eight-episode show based on the Texas Monthly article “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild” by Leif Reigstad was in the works.
At the time, Cage was attached to star as Exotic, with Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios producing the show.