Husband Dillon Passage Surprised By Nicolas Cage Casting As Joe Exotic; Has Other Ideas

It was only recently announced that actor Nicolas Cage has been roped in to play the role of Tiger King Joe Exotic in upcoming scripted series based on the Netflix breakout docuseries.

However, Dillon Passage, husband to Joe Exotic (Joseph Maldonado-Passage), the infamous subject of Netflix's Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, never thought the various scripted projects about the life of his husband would come together. That changed when Nicolas Cage signed on to play Joe Exotic in a limited series project from CBS Television Studios and Imagine Television.

"I thought they were talking out their ass about a making movie, but it's legit now I guess," Passage told E! News in an exclusive interview. "I'm pretty excited. It'll be interesting to see how somebody else portrays this because obviously I've lived this, but I'm excited to see how this all turns out."

"I'm really hoping for either Zac Efron or Paul Wesley to play me," Passage said. "I couldn't imagine who would play anyone else, they are such an insane cast of characters, I don't know how anyone is going to capture them, but it'll definitely be interesting to see."

Passage said the choice of Cage in the lead role surprised him. "He is A-list. And, I really thought it would be David Spade with his Joe Dirt-looking ass," Passage said. "I haven't spoken to Joe since this news came out. He was put back into quarantine since the prison population has something like 300 [COVID-19] cases. He thinks he is in quarantine because they are trying to punish him, but it's not at all about that, it's for his health. And he has his autoimmune disease so it's really for his own protection because if he gets sick, he's like done for."

According to Passage, Joe Exotic will be "so excited to see Nic Cage is playing him."