Phil Lord and Chris Miller have spoken about the upcoming horror-comedy, Cocaine Bear, describing the film as “insane.” The Academy Award-winning duo are no strangers to working on off-beat fare, having directed 2012’s 21 Jump Street reboot and its subsequent sequel, and they even lent their talents to the pilot episode of cult TV series, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It is within the realm of animation, however, that the pair have really made their mark, writing and directing the critically acclaimed The Lego Movie and producing the much-beloved Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
In 2019, it was originally announced that Lord and Miller would be producing an untitled bear horror-comedy project from a script penned by The Babysitter: Killer Queen screenwriter, Jimmy Warden. The film is reportedly based on the strange but true story of a 175-pound black bear that died from eating a duffel bag full of cocaine in the 1980s after it was dropped out of a plane by a narcotics cop turned drug smuggler. Earlier this year, Universal Studios picked the project up with Elizabeth Banks set to direct, and Keri Russell, Ray Liotta, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson set to star.
Most recently, the producers sat down with Cinemablend while they attended the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. With filming on Cocaine Bear now officially wrapped, the producers were asked to describe Banks’ new film in one word. Given the unusual nature of the film’s premise, Miller provided the perfect response, saying, “Insane. (Laughs) It’s going to be a lot of fun, that one. And we can’t wait for people to see it.”
While in real life, the bear in question was found dead by a hunter in Chattahoochee National Forest and its taxidermied remains are still on display in the Kentucky Fun Mall, there’s no doubt this film will see the drug-fueled animal come face-to-face with some unsuspecting victims before succumbing to its ultimate demise. Making the story even more interesting, is the fate of the real-life drug smuggler responsible, who died with approximately $14 million worth of cocaine strapped to his body after he jumped from his plane and his parachute failed to open. Exactly how Banks intends to weave these story elements together remains to be seen.
Proving the truth can sometimes be much stranger than fiction, a tale which features a crooked cop who turns to drug smuggling and crashes his plane would be interesting enough, but add into the mix a black bear which then ingests over 77 pounds of cocaine, and Banks has the perfect recipe for a truly wild ride. Given both Lord and Miller’s penchant for the strange and unusual, coupled with Banks’ own unique comedic stylings, Cocaine Bear promises to be something truly bizarre in the most entertaining way. One can only imagine the hijinks the filmmakers have in store for that wild, coked-up bear.
Source: Cinemablend
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