The runaway success of Netflix’s Tiger King has injected new life into a potential scripted version of the sordid tale, igniting a feeding frenzy around the casting of the titular ringmaster.
At least a half-dozen actors and self-proclaimed Tiger King enthusiasts, including Dax Shepard and Edward Norton, have campaigned for the colorful role. “If I don’t get cast as Joe Exotic in the eventual biopic, Hollywood is broken,” Shepard cracked on Twitter last week, prompting this tongue-in-cheek response from Norton: “Um, step aside, pal. You’re way too young and buff and you know it.”
The pair’s cat-and-mouse game triggered a larger, more serious debate across social media about who would be the purr-fect choice to portray the gun-toting polygamist opposite Kate McKinnon’s Carole Baskin in the potential limited series, which is in active development at Universal Content Productions. Among the other names tossed into the meow mix: Steve Buscemi, Danny McBride, Thomas Lennon and Billy Bob Thornton.
And that barely scratches the surface.
After scanning the Interwebs for other popular suggestions, and folding in a few ideas of out own, we narrowed the field down to the 13 paws-ible contenders in the poll below. Which actor do you believe would be the definitive Joe Exotic?
Now, before you vote, a couple FYIs: The poll closes at tomorrow, March 31, at 6 pm ET. And the results will be kept under wraps until they are revealed on TVLine later this week.
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