In 1985, an airborne drug smuggler dropped a shipment of cocaine worth approximately two million dollars in Blue Ridge, Georgia. Investigators searching the area also found the remains of a black bear which had, examiners believe, overdosed on the dropped cocaine. Decades later, this strange story has been brought to life again in the form of the movie “Cocaine Bear”, directed by Elizabeth Banks and produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
The movie takes the basis of the real story and imagines what might have happened if the bear hadn't died and instead went on a cocaine-fueled rampage. The bear is a CGI creation, with a stunt man providing motion capture, and the cast includes Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, Alden Ehrenreich, O'Shea Jackson and Ray Liotta.
The filmmakers have described the reception to the movie as unexpectedly open, with Universal Pictures chief Donna Langley supporting it from the beginning. The movie’s trailer has been viewed more than 25 million times, and the filmmakers hope that it will be a hit in theaters. They believe that it can demonstrate that original films can be successful, such as the Academy Awards favorite “Everything Everywhere All at Once”.
If “Cocaine Bear” is successful, a sequel isn’t out of the question. Banks is deferring for now, joking that “somebody will put something into the AI chat bot and it will spit out something ridiculous and the internet will write it for us.”