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Kate McKinnon to Play Tiger King's Carole Baskin in Scripted SeriesÂ
Kate McKinnon to Play Tiger King's Carole Baskin in Scripted SeriesÂ
The scripted series, based on the podcast Joe Exotic, was announced last November.
Netflix's Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is the must-see docuseries -- or must-see any kind of series -- during this current time of worldwide stay-at-home orders. The series about the big cat war between polygamous gay tiger tamer Joe "Exotic" (real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage) and Carole Baskin, the head of Big Cat Rescue (whose husband disappeared mysteriously in the late '90s), has captivated viewers with its wild story.
Now there's already a scripted series about the bizarre world of big cat lovers in the works with Kate McKinnon slated to play Baskin, according to Variety.
Last November, Universal Content Productions announced that it was adapting the Wondery podcast Joe Exotic into a scripted series and that McKinnon would play Maldonado-Passage's longtime nemesis Baskin. The scripted series appears to hew fairly closely to the central tension of the docuseries from directors Rebecca Chaiklin and Eric Goode that focuses on the rivalry between Baskin and Maldonado-Passage that involves open threats, lawsuits, and murder for hire.
The docuseries delves into a host of characters involved in the big cat world, each wackier or more sinister than the last, but Maldonado-Passage and Baskin are at the center. He's a gun-toting, mullet-sporting, erstwhile magician, and former roadside zookeeper with two husbands who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for a murder-for-hire plan against Baskin, and for 17 wildlife violations for the killing of five tigers, according to Entertainment Tonight.
Meanwhile, Baskin, founder of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Fla., led the charge against Maldonado-Passage's Oklahoma-based roadside empire and his illegal breeding of tigers for decades. The docuseries also sheds light on Maldonado-Passage's insistence that Baskin murdered her millionaire husband Don Lewis, who went missing more than 20 years ago. While salacious rumors have persisted about Baskin's missing husband, she denies knowing what happened to him and was never charged with a crime.
McKinnon's is the only casting announcement that's been made for the series based on Joe Exotic.
