UPDATE: The Trailer for Cocaine Bear is here!
So after more than a year in mothballs, we dusted off Grizzly Bomb to talk about the new Elizabeth Banks-helmed project; Cocaine Bear.
The story is based on actual events from 1985 when a black bear in Kentucky ate an entire duffel bag of cocaine. Andrew C. Thornton II, a narco officer turned drug smuggler, threw the bag from his overloaded plane, which was carrying too much weight. He also threw himself off the plane but died when his parachute failed.
Here is the poster, released earlier today;
We don’t have a trailer yet for this presumptive Oscar-bait film, but we do know that in real life, the bear did what might be considered “too much coke” and died. His taxidermied body is now on display at a mall in Lexington, Kentucky – which might be the saddest part of this whole story.
Aside from the bear – who will likely be a combination of CG and trained animal actors – the cast has some interesting humans in it as well. First off, this is one of five projects not yet released to feature the late Ray Liotta, who passed in May at 67. After that, Keri Russell (The Americans), Margo Martindale (Justified), O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth) and Kahyun Kim (American Gods) all appear as well. Plus Aaron Holliday (Sharp Objects) plays a character named ‘Stache’ – so you know he’s gonna be the best one.
Behind the camera, cinematographer John Guleserian (Candyman) will act as DoP for Banks, with Lord & Miller (Into the Spider-Verse) on board to produce. The film is based on a script by Jimmy Warden, who worked as a production assistant for Lord and Miller when they directed 21 Jump Street.
Cocaine Bear was shot in Ireland in 2021, and Universal Pictures has it slated for release on February 24, 2023. With Coke Bear’s impending arrival, the release of a trailer shouldn’t be far off.
Don’t coke the bear, get in line.
Grizzly Bomb 