WILL THERE BE A “TIGER KING” ADAPTATION WITH ROB LOWE? OR IS IT ALL JUST A FANTASY?

By: Keaton Marcus

A perhaps disturbing photo of Rob Lowe posing as Joe Exotic in a post on Instagram. Teasing a possible adaptation.

After Netflix’s recent hit docseries Tiger King went viral, there’s been an abundance of speculation on whether somebody would actually make a scripted adaptation. Well, the massive amount of fans hoping for this might just get their deepest desires with a possible adaptation with Rob Lowe in early talks to star as Joe Exotic. Don’t be surprised, the documentary garnered over 34 million views in its first ten days of release. Whether it will be adapted into a movie or TV show is unclear, but it could be happening.

Deadline reports that director Ryan Murphy and Lowe want to make their OWN tale of the famed Tiger King, and discussions are still in the very early stages. Lowe even teased the adaptation on Instagram with photos of him dressed like Joe Exotic, mullet and all. The real life Mr. Exotic specifically wanted Brad Pitt to play himself, which isn’t a bad choice. But Pitt seems to be out of the running.

Taking a glance at real life, Mr. Exotic has so far served 22 years in federal prison for two counts of murder-for-hire on Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin, and twelve wildlife violations. What’s really interesting is that due to the popularity of Tiger King, cops have reopened the case on the long missing Howard Baskin, Carole’s wife, who people suspect she fed to the tigers. It’s crazy alright. But it all took place in Florida and Oklahoma to make you feel better.

In our review of the series, we praised it, calling it a “stellar Netflix doc that could use a lessening of the running time, but still benefits from terrific interviews and a captivating portrait of obsession that almost ended in murder.” We rated it a solidly high 89% “sweet” on a scale of 0-100. It’s got the popularity and the quality. It made a great documentary series and could make a great scripted one. And believe it or not. I’m down for Mr. Lowe portraying them eccentric man that has blown up the internet recently.

Tiger King is now streaming on Netflix for free with a subscription.