The upcoming film Cocaine Bear is everything one can imagine based off its title, as the trailer for director Elizabeth Banks' comedic thriller proves.
Would-be moviegoers who have long wondered (for some reason) what would happen if a giant bear accidentally ingested a brick-full of cocaine dropped by a smuggler plane are in for a treat. Indeed, the film, for all its inherent, Snakes on a Plane-like zaniness, is actually inspired by a real-life incident that took place in 1985, reflecting the decade most people would have guessed for such a thing. Likewise, the film takes place in a Georgia forest, where a fearsome 500 lb. black bear goes wild on a cocaine-fueled assault spree. In this case, an array of teens, tourists, cops and criminals find themselves the creature's quarry.
The Real-Life Cocaine Bear
Of course, the aforementioned real-life inspiration for the film was given a broad brush for Cocaine Bear. The December 1985 incident in question saw a cocaine smuggler, a former narcotics officer named Andrew C. Thornton II, drop a duffel bag full of product out of his plane becuase it was too weighed down. While his attempted escape from the plane proved fatal due to a faulty parachute, the bag full of nose candy was found by a 175 lb. black bear, which ingested the drugs and died. Interestingly, the bear's taxidermized remains are preserved at Lexington's Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall, where it earned the tongue-in-cheek, movie-titular name "Cocaine Bear."
Banks directed the kooky concept film off a screenplay by Jimmy Warden, who co-wrote the McG-directed 2020 Netflix horror film The Babysitter: Killer Queen. While it's firmly in Warden's wheelhouse, the film represents a thematic departure for Banks' work behind the camera. A veteran actor known for myriad film roles in franchises such as The Hunger Games and director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy, Banks made her feature directorial debut with the 2015 sequel Pitch Perfect 2, from which she moved on to the 2019 Charlie's Angels reboot movie.
Elizabeth Banks' Directorial Turn
Prospective success and/or acclaim from Cocaine Bear could become a moment of redemption for Banks since her directorial career still feels the sting of Charlie's Angels bombing at the box office. The reboot of the hit 1970s TV series, which dropped on Nov. 15, 2019, became a commercial and critical dud. Some theorize that the film failed to resonate due to it being perceived as a ham-fisted feminist film manifesto of sorts. However, Banks recently said that such a thing was never her intent. "There was a story around Charlie's Angels that I was creating some feminist manifesto," she said. "I was just making an action movie."
Auspiciously, Cocaine Bear conjured quite a cast. It stars Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Margo Martindale, Christian Convery-Jennings, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kristofer Hivju, Hannah Hoekstra and Aaron Holliday. Plus, it notably serves as one of the last onscreen appearances of the late Ray Liotta, who passed away this past May.
Cocaine Bear drops at theaters on Feb. 24.
Source: Universal Pictures