Louis Theroux will produce Louis Theroux: The Cult of Joe Exotic, a new documentary feature for BBC Two about the Tiger King. Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, was the focus of the recent Netflix documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. The series followed Exotic and documented the legal and social issues surrounding his business, the for-profit Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park. Exotic was a prolific tiger breeder and a constant source of controversy in the big cat community. He’s currently serving 22 years in federal prison for animal cruelty and attempted murder for hire.
Theroux first met Exotic back in 2011, while filming his BBC Two special America’s Most Dangerous Pets. The documentary explored the culture of exotic animal owners and breeders in the United States and included interviews with people who kept chimpanzees, bears, lions, baboons, tigers, and several other types of exotic animals as pets. Exotic featured heavily in the 2011 special and now, after Tiger King has become a cultural phenomenon, Theroux is going back for round two.
According to THR, Theroux is now returning to Oklahoma to delve into what happened since he last visited. Louis Theroux: The Cult of Joe Exotic is something of a follow-up to America’s Most Dangerous Pets. This time, however, the focus will primarily be on the Tiger King himself, whose life got “stranger and bigger,” according to Theroux, and who now finds himself a social media phenomenon while in prison. About his new documentary, Theroux said:
“I spent eight or nine days filming at the park back in 2011, over the course of three separate visits. I’d forgotten how much we shot until I went back into the footage during lockdown. It’s extraordinary how much was there. Since then the story just got stranger and bigger, and in going back at the end of last year I uncovered a real-life drama that took me in directions I never could have expected.”
BBC’s head of commissioning, documentaries, history, and religion, Clare Sillery, mentioned that this feature-length special documentary will be filled with never-before-seen footage and new interviews with those who are part of Joe Exotic’s life, from those who both love him and hate him. In addition to the new documentary about Exotic, several fictional projects are in the works, including a drama series for Amazon starring Nicolas Cage, and an NBC series that sees Kate McKinnon playing Carole Baskin.
Tiger King turned Exotic into a social media phenomenon rather than an outcast. After the Netflix series became a hit, viewers clamored for more information about Exotic. The resulting media attention seemingly covered every aspect of Exotic’s life and scandals. Theroux’s history with Exotic makes him the perfect fit to carry out a documentary like Louis Theroux: The Cult of Joe Exotic, but it’s going to be a challenge to bring viewers new and exclusive details instead of just repeating what fans already know.
Source: THR
Originally from https://screenrant.com/tiger-king-joe-exotic-bbc-documentary-louis-theroux/