Seeing a bear in the woods can be pretty unnerving, but when you throw a cocaine-fueled bear into the mix, well, that just makes the experience outright terrifying. Welcome to Cocaine Bear. The upcoming film with the most outlandish title follows a black bear in a Georgia forest who ingests multiple packages of cocaine ($10,000 worth to be exact) and naturally goes on a killing spree in search of more.
Sounds unbelievable, right? Funny thing is that this film is inspired by true events. In 1985, a black bear in Blue Ridge, Georgia ate almost $20 million of cocaine. The bear was found deceased, assumedly from overdose, by authorities. So thankfully, no murderous rampage, but there’s even more to the story.
Apparently the drugs rained from the sky after Andrew Thornton, narcotics officer, lawyer, and alleged gang leader, dropped multiple packages of cocaine from a plane that landed near Blairville, Georgia. Thornton then took several more packages with him via parachute, only to fall to his death in the driveway of a home in Knoxville, Tennessee. His plane crashed in North Carolina, while his clothes, maps of Jamaica, and a pilot’s logbook were found south of Atlanta.
Yeah, even the real story could be a film.
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But we have a fictionalized version thanks to actress and filmmaker Elizabeth Banks directing the film and written by Jimmy Warden. And starring in this story about “Pablo Eskobear” are Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, O’Shea Jackson, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Christian Convery, Kristofer Hivju, Alden Ehrenreich, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and Ray Liotta (in his final role).
The internet is freaking out over this trailer and rightfully so.
“And the Oscar goes to … Cocaine Bear.” pic.twitter.com/G4vDyNCEqT
— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) November 30, 2022
Disney: "Let's send these hit movies to streaming but release the one that looks like Disney Channel circa 2004."
Netflix: "Let's pull this hit movie from theaters after 1 week and leave like 100 mil on the table."
Universal: "COCAINE BEAR! COMING THIS FEB ONLY IN THEATERS!"— David Kittredge (@davidkittredge) December 1, 2022
How good was this cocaine that the bear is tweeting from beyond the veil?! https://t.co/zlK1JbVGvn
— Villain Era Begins… now.✌🏾 (@cypheroftyr) December 1, 2022
Is Pusha T doing the Cocaine Bear soundtrack or does that make too much sense?
— Donwill (@donwill) November 30, 2022
Me trying to pet the Cocaine Bear pic.twitter.com/DapPdartu8
— BLURAYANGEL 🦇 (@blurayangel) November 30, 2022
This may be the finest example of getting exactly as hoped with an announced film. When all of us heard there was a movie called "Cocaine Bear" in development, this is precisely what we wanted to see. https://t.co/I6daCUbNC2
— [email protected] (@cmclymer) December 1, 2022
There are high expectations for this film to be nothing, but entertaining. Cocaine Bear premieres in theaters on February 24, 2023.
Don’t coke the bear. #CocaineBear pic.twitter.com/3FmY8WmAdv
— Cocaine Bear (@cocainebear) November 28, 2022