The Creator of Tiger King is Back with a New Series

Saturday, August 22nd in Tampa. Witness an MMA legend's final fight. Chris Cyborg, one of the greatest in history. She's an absolute pioneer in the sport. Defense her PFL world title, one last time. Unforgettable end to an unforgettable career. Saturday, August 22nd live from Benchmark International Arena. For tickets, visit pfl. info slash Tampa. A new docu series called Monsters of God comes out tomorrow on HBO. Looks into the world of exotic reptile smuggling from the perspectives of traffickers, collectors, and wildlife officers working to stop him. Joining us now on the Kogo News Live line is the director. Eric Good. He's also the creator of the 2020 Netflix hit series, Tiger King, the founder of Good Films. Boy, Eric, thank you so much for joining us on San Diego's Morning News. It's a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for having me. All right. So tell us, is this going to be anything like Tiger King? How will it be different or the same? Oh, gosh, I can't give that away. It's very different than Tiger King, but obviously it involves wildlife, in this case, cold-blooded creatures that I personally love, reptiles, and reptile smuggling and everything to do with reptiles smuggling going back over half a century. I'm sure that you did a lot of research into this. I didn't know that reptile smuggling was such a thing. We have a facility here in San Diego County called Lions, Tigers, and Bears. They even have a couple of the tigers from Tiger King himself. I didn't know what was such a thing. What did you find out when you were doing the research? Well, it's complicated. You know, a lot of people know about the drug trade and drug smuggling and human trafficking and arms trafficking, but very few people know about reptile smuggling and the size of it and the scale of it around the world. Reptiles coming into our country and leaving our country, our native reptiles. San Diego, for example, has really interesting reptiles. You guys have red diamond back rattlesnakes and all kinds of interesting horn lizards. But yeah, it's a global market and many people don't realize it and they don't think about it as much as drugs because we think of drugs as being such a, you know, a terrible thing in this country. But really, smuggling wildlife is such a toll because they're living creatures and there's an extinction crisis we're going through. And so, you know, it has really serious ramifications as well. Yeah, so for a great cause, we're speaking with award-winning director Eric Good, the creator of the Netflix series, Tiger King. And your latest episode is called Monsters of God, monster episodes, I should say. It's a series. But it debuted at South by Southwest. And I'm curious as to what the reaction was.

Oh, you know, I think we won some award called Audience Appreciation Award or something. I don't know. All right. I think it did very well South by Southwest, but I'm really hoping, you know, the real test is seeing how it's going to do when it comes out tomorrow. And we, people see all five episodes. The Tiger King was so popular. Everybody was talking about it. What do you think it is about it that drew people in? Oh, who could have planned a film coming out when COVID hit? And I had a captive audience watching captive cats. You know, that was fortuitous to say the least. And it was filled with incredible characters in this story. Officers-A-God has really interesting characters as well. That's, I mean, it is remarkable. And I was going to ask you about that. I mean, I think the pandemic really fueled the interest in Tiger King. And boy, I have so many stories of people because, hey, you've got to see Tiger King. You've got to see Tiger King. So congratulations on all your accomplishments. And thank you so much for joining us to preview Monsters of God, which premieres tomorrow on HBO. And remember, we're the monsters, guys. Yes, 100%. I should have asked that question. Thank you, Eric. Thanks, Eric. Saturday, August 22nd in Tampa, witness an MMA legend's final fight. Chris Cyborg, one of the greatest in history. She's an absolute pioneer in the sport. Defense her PFL world title, one last time. Unforgettable end. Champion Cyborg! to an unforgettable career. And still. Saturday, August 22nd live from Benchmark International Arena. For tickets, visit pfl. info slash Tampa.