In 1985, in the depths of Chattahoochee National Forest, a hunter discovered a dead 175-pound black bear who had just ingested 75 pounds of cocaine after a drug smuggler had unsuccessfully moved some drugs from Colombia to the United States. But what if this bear had just gotten super high and went crazy on locals in the forest? That is the story of the 2023 movie release Cocaine Bear.
From Into the Spider-Verse producers Chris Miller and Phil Lord, who’ve previously teased how “insane” it is. The movie is also directed by Elizabeth Banks years after she helmed Charlie’s Angels comes the first trailer (you can watch above) for the upcoming horror movie / outrageous comedy. And from the looks of it, Cocaine Bear is going to be absolutely hilarious, vulgar and super gory.
The script was written by The Babysitter: Killer Queen writer Jimmy Warden. When CinemaBlend attended a Los Angeles event for Cocaine Bear with Elizabeth Banks earlier this week, the actor/filmmaker shared her direction for the movie, saying this:
I remember when I read this story thinking, I have a lot of empathy for the bear. I was like, that is really upsetting. Like this bear is collateral damage in our truly fucked up war on drugs. And I feel like we should make a movie that is the bear's revenge story. And, that's what this is.
The Cocaine Bear trailer adapts the wild piece of history with fiction as drug smugglers drop their blow in the national forest and the wild, fuzzy black bear consumes a whole block of it before causing quite the ruckus for everyone in the surrounding area. Among the cast is Solo’s Alden Ehrenreich, reteaming with Lord and Miller after his Star Wars movie, Keri Russell, Sweet Tooth’s Christian Convery and the late Ray Liotta as the movie’s drug kingpin hungry for coke after losing it in the drop gone wrong.
Liotta’s upcoming role in Cocaine Bear is now among his final performances after the Goodfellas actor died at the age of 67 in May. Following his death, Martin Scorsese showed his regret not having worked with him again. It’ll be a treat to see the actor bring comedy to Cocaine Bear amidst the movie walking a line between ridiculousness and a slasher starring a high AF bear.
The bear was created with the help of CGI from Weta Digital, which are the creatives behind The Planet of the Apes and Lord of the Rings movies. As the movie teases, there’s a ton of fun f-bombs, dark humor and slasher-like action as the bear gets high on cocaine and just runs wild. Cocaine Bear is set to hit theaters on February 24.
