Now there is some sort of race as to who can play Joe on the big screen.   First off the block is Nicolas Cage in an Amazon Studios production. Their version will center on Cage as Exotic Joe as an eccentric, exotic zookeeper in Oklahoma who fights to keep his park — even at the risk of losing his sanity. The series will live in the lion’s den with Joe, explore how he became Joe Exotic, and how he lost himself to a character of his own creation.

Kind of seems like perfect casting as we have always thought of Cage as ……how can we say ……more than a little unhinged?

When the project was first announced Kate McKinnon was expected to play Baskin, BUT is now rumored to have jumped ships and has joined another Exotic Joe film headed up by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and The Angry Inch)/

“I’m thrilled to take on the role of this modern folk antihero,” Mitchell told Deadline. “Joe and I are the same age and like him, I grew up queer in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas so I feel like I know a little bit about this guy and his desperate attempt to conquer an inhospitable world.”

No release date has been set for either, meanwhile, poor Joe is languishing away in jail after he tried very hard to receive a pardon from Donald Trump before he left office.

Note to Mr. Cameron Mitchell if Mckinnon doesn’t work out, you should so cast Lea De Laria to play Baskin.  Or if she is unavailable Angela from the TLC  reality show 9o Days Fiance is a dead ringer for Baskin