Good news arrived on Tuesday for those hoping for the continued expansion of the Joe Exotic Cinematic Universe.
NBCUniversal is betting big on the Kate McKinnon-starring Joe Exotic limited series with a straight-to-series order, according to Deadline. The order is built around a multi-platform rollout that includes the NBC broadcast network, the recently launched Peacock streaming service, and basic cable outlet USA. Joe Exotic, it's worth noting, is—at least for now—merely a working title for the project.
The series was first set up at NBCUniversal in November 2019 and is based on the second season of Wondery's Over My Dead Body podcast. Interest, of course, in anything even remotely concerned with Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin has maintained at a baffling level thanks to the quarantine-spurred megapopularity of Netflix's Tiger King docuseries.
On the Pet Show podcast, Baskin said she hasn't spoken to McKinnon about the project but "we really hope that her or anybody that does any kind of follow-up programming doesn’t end up doing what Cardi B did and hiring people that are exploiting and abusing cats.” Baskin previously speculated about animal cruelty on the set of Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” video,” saying they “probably dealt with one of the big cat pimps, probably even one of the ones shown in Tiger King…who make a living from beating, shocking and starving cats to make them stand on cue in front of a green screen in a studio.” (Cardi’s answer at the time? "I’m not gonna engage with Carole Baskin on that. … Like, girl you killed your goddamn husband.”)
“[McKinnon] has not reached out to me," Baskin also said, "and I really hope that she does before she gets too far down the line with it. I’d love to know what her take is on it and what she’s thinking to do and see if there was any way we could advise her.”
While the role of Joe Exotic in this new series has not been cast, Tuesday's reports adds that the writing will be handled by Etan Frankel and McKinnon will also executive produce alongside Wondery's Hernan Lopez, Marshall Levy, and Aaron Heart. Frankel, additionally, is also credited as an executive producer through an overall deal with Universal Studio Group's UCP.
Back in May, Nicolas Cage—in a tremendous feat of casting—was announced as having signed on to play Joe Exotic in a separate series from Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios. The series marks the first proper TV project for the inimitable actor and will pull its material from a Texas Monthly article by Leif Reigstad titled "A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild."
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