Elizabeth Banks Says Her Movie COCAINE BEAR Is Like ‘The Bear’s Revenge Story’ With A Surprising Theme

Director Elizabeth Banksthe next thriller of, Cocaine bear, looks like it’s going to be a wild ride. Based on the true story of a bear who stumbled upon 88 pounds of cocaine that was offloaded from an airplane in the Georgia desert, this film aims to depict what might have happened if the bear had survived the dosage and rampaged on a homicidal rampage due to the ingested narcotic. What actually happened is that the poor thing just overdosed and died, but Banks likes to imagine what would have happened if things had gone any other way.

In this month’s issue of Total Film, Banks opened up about her take on the story and the themes explored in the film:

“Cocaine Bear is a horror comedy. There are a lot of horror tropes that we play with in the movie. You know, he’s a cocaine addicted bear who attacks people! But he’s also a really funny character. It’s about a big group of get together people who are way over their heads, everyone is looking for the dope and no one realizes that the bear got there first.

“[Jimmy Warden’s script] it was so unique, and I thought it really gave me the opportunity to play in a genre that I had never considered before, and do something outside the box. My first reaction was “I need to read the true story and figure out how much of it is true.” Then I went on a deep dive. I thought this bear was collateral damage [in] a broken war on drugs. I had a lot of empathy for that. I thought this movie might be the bear’s revenge story.

She continued:

“One of the striking themes of the film is parenting. The film is very much about fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and protecting their babies. That’s one of the things that attracted me as a mom, this story of how to be the best version of a parent [theme] it’s a sense that the war on drugs really escalated in the 1980s. This film is set in 1985, which is the height of all these anti-crack programs in America. Many of these policies have gone sideways and this bear was collateral damage. Then the other thing is about nature itself. We, as human beings, with our arrogance, feel that we can control nature. [But] if you fuck with nature, nature will fuck with you.

“Cocaine Bear is super fun. If you want to let go of everything in your life for 95 minutes, this is a great way to do it. It’s an amazing adventure. There are some really cool messages. It’s been fun to see people relate to the movie it’s terrifying [when a film is finished and out of your hands]. That’s my horror movie right there. There’s only so much I can control. That said, I’m really proud of it [it]. I can sleep well at night knowing that I have done my job well and that if the public wants to see a film called Cocaine Bear, I have produced a film worthy of the title.”

I’m really weird about animals in movies, so even if this cute girl is going on a killing spree, I don’t want to see him hurt. I hope in this version Cocaine Bear manages to escape into the sunset and live to have an adventure another day.

The real bear it’s based on was taxidermied after its autopsy, and The Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall claims it has the stuffed remains of the bear on display, complete with a name tag giving the bear the nickname “Pablo EskoBear”.

In a blog, the mall says the bear went through many hands before arriving in Kentucky. The Georgia medical examiner who autopsied the bear contacted a taxidermist to stuff the bear, then donated it to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Eventually the bear made its way to a pawn shop, where it was purchased by country music star Waylon Jennings. The bear continued to exchange hands, traveling to Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada before eventually being purchased by the mall, the blog claims.

The film features the late Ray Leotta in his last role before he died, as well as real-life husband and wife actors Keri Russell And Matthew Rhyswho are reuniting with their own The Americans co-star Margo Martindale. They are united by O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery-Jennings, Alden EhrenreichAnd Jesse Tyler Ferguson.