Filmmaker Elizabeth Banks says Cokey, the upcoming eponymous American black bear star of her horror/dark comedy feature “Cocaine Bear,” would beat any other screen bear in a fight.
Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Margo Martindale and Ray Liotta star in the project is inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it.
In the film, an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists, and teens converge in a Georgia forest where as 500-pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of cocaine and gone on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow… and blood.
Jimmy Warden penned the script which caught the attention of Banks. Speaking with EW, she says the draw was the ability to make something ‘truly unique’. The bear ends up being “sort of collateral damage in the War on Drugs”, and so it ends up being a revenge story for the bear along with containing a real message – “We should not f— with nature, nature will win.”
Cokey was a mix of a digital bear by Weta FX, and an on-set bear performer named Allan Henry, with Banks saying he “knew really well how to walk as a quadruped using prosthetics”. Thus the bear can roar, drags unsuspecting hikers and even snort lines off body parts.
Comparing him to other onscreen bears, Banks says Cokey is by far the most vicious yet: “Cokey outmatches The Revenant bear every time out.” The fact that no one can go toe-to-toe with a vicious bear is “what provided a lot of the comedic engine… These are just people who aren’t prepared or have the capacity to deal with a bear who’s high on coke”.
“Cocaine Bear” is slated to premiere in cinemas on February 24th 2023.
