Cocaine Bear: What We Know About Elizabeth Banks’ New Movie

Elizabeth Banks is set to direct the upcoming Cocaine Bear with Phil Lord and Chris Miller serving as producers, and the true story is stranger than fiction. The last time Banks teamed up with Lord and Miller, they dove into the world of Legos. Now, they’re teaming up for a story about cocaine. Here’s everything we know so far.

They previously worked together on The Lego Movie series, which blurred the line between fantasy and reality. The movies toggled between the world of Legos and that of a real-life family. Cocaine Bear is a strange enough story that it too seems like it could be fictional, yet it’s not. Cocaine Bear weaves a wild story of a drug smuggler and a bear that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The trio’s combined previous experience shows that Banks, Lord, and Miller are just the team to take on this challenge. With them at the helm, it’s bound to be a good time. Let’s take a look at everything that’s known so far about Cocaine Bear.

Elizabeth Banks Is Making Cocaine Bear: The Movie

For the majority of her career, Banks has stayed on the acting side of Hollywood. She’s largely known for comedic roles in movies and television shows such as Wet Hot American Summer, the Hunger Games franchise, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Scrubs. Even so, she has significant directing experience on her resume. She already has Pitch Perfect 2 and Charlie’s Angels under her belt, proving she has a penchant for the comedy/action genre. With that in mind, combined with the fact that Lord and Miller are also known for the same genres, audiences can expect Cocaine Bear to likely fall in a similar genre.

Cocaine Bear Release Date

At the time of writing, it’s too early to say when Cocaine Bear will be released in theaters. The movie is currently set to begin filming later in 2021. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, movie studios have been on an endless loop of delaying and shuffling around movies on their release schedules. Cocaine Bear will likely be released in mid- to late 2022 at the earliest, but coronavirus-related movie delays may push the movie’s release date back even further.

Cocaine Bear Cast

Cocaine Bear is currently in the very preliminary stages of production, meaning that no one has been cast in the film yet. Director Elizabeth Banks has appeared in both of the feature films she directed. She had a small role in Pitch Perfect 2 and a slightly larger part in Charlie’s Angels. It’s safe to assume that Banks will likely appear in Cocaine Bear, potentially in an even more significant part than she played in Charlie’s Angels.

Cocaine Bear’s True Story

The movie is based on the true story of Andrew Carter Thornton, who went from narcotics police officer to cocaine smuggler. According to MuckRock, Thornton’s story intersected with that of a 175-pound black bear who stumbled upon a duffel bag full of 75 pounds of cocaine. The bear ate some of that cocaine, overdosed, and died. Thornton’s body was eventually found with its own bag of cocaine near that bear. Cocaine Bear will inevitably take a little creative license in connecting the dots, but will likely chronicle how Thornton went from police officer to dead in a forest with a bag of cocaine. We’ll continue to update this story as we learn more about Banks’ upcoming movie.

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