Peacock Trumps Amazon On Joe Exotic Series As The Real Tiger King Gets Re-Sentenced

In the land of the Tiger King, Nicholas Cage is out, John Cameron Mitchell is in, and the real Joe Exotic had his prison sentence vacated and will be re-sentenced.

Streaming Along: Following the success of the Netflix Inc NFLX docuseries "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness," the life and crimes of the controversial zoo operator Joe Exotic – whose birth name is Joseph Allen Schreibvogel and later changed his identity to become Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage – became a hot property in Hollywood, with rival productions seeking to dramatize his life.

Comcast Corporation's CMCSA Peacock streaming service got their first and is now in production of its "Joe Exotic" series with Mitchell in the title role, plus Kate McKinnon as his nemesis Carole Baskin and Kyle MacLachlan as her husband Howard.

Amazon.com AMZN had planned to star Cage in its own series, but the Oscar-winning actor informed Variety the project took too long to develop.

"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."

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See You In Court: Meanwhile, Exotic's 22-year prison sentence has been vacated by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which determined that a lower court acted in error by not combining both of his murder-for-hire convictions together. Although his sentence has been vacated, his convictions were upheld and he will be sentenced at a later date.

Exotic has been somewhat busy while incarcerated. He recently became a partner in a new cannabis product line branded to his name and he was named the winner of a Social Media Superstar Awards. He used a three-minute audio recording acceptance speech to decry his imprisonment as a "conspiracy" and an "obstruction of justice" and called on President Biden for a pardon.

Photo: Joe Exotic and friend, courtesy of Netflix.

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