Cocaine Bear First Look Reveals Incredible Logo for Bizarre Elizabeth Banks Film

Work has begun on Elizabeth Banks‘ newest film Cocaine Bear and now, we’re getting our first look at its incredible logo thanks to a set photo shared by produce Christopher Miller. On Friday, Miller took to social media, announcing the first day of shooting on the film, and shared a photo of the director’s clapboard bearing the logo. Banks is directing the film while Miller produces along with Phil Lord. The film is currently scheduled to be released in 2022 by Universal Pictures.

There aren’t a ton of details about Cocaine Bear just yet, but the film is inspired by the wild, real-life events that took place in 1985. Former Air Force officer turned drug smuggler Andrew Carter Thornton had been on a smuggling run from Colombia when he parachuted from his plane with a duffel bag containing roughly 40 kilos of cocaine but died when he got caught in his parachute and ended up freefalling to the ground. A 175-pound American black bear found the duffel bag of cocaine, attempted to eat it, and died of an overdose. The bear was later taxidermied and is on display at the Kentucky Fun Mall where he has been nicknamed “Pablo EskoBear”.

Cocaine Bear is set to star Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ray Liotta, Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Margo Martindale, Kristofer Hivju, and Brooklynn Prince. Filming is currently underway in Ireland. In a recent interview with Fast Company, Banks briefly mentioned Cocaine Bear as fitting into the overall comedic elements that she likes in the projects she takes on, describing the story as “absurd on its face”.

“I like comedic elements inside of things. Pitch Perfect, it’s a comedy with music. I made a big-ass musical, but it’s really a heartfelt, comedic endeavor that happens to be a romance between all of those women. When you understand that, Charlie’s Angels did the exact same thing. I made it about friendship, them being in love with each other,” Banks said. “Cocaine Bear, I mean, it’s absurd on its face. There’s a bear high on cocaine. My point is, tonally, I’m interested in the same vibe for the most part. I like to be what I call quietly revolutionary. I’m not out here being like, ‘Look at me! I’m doing something that nobody’s seen before!’ But at the end of the day, if you really pay attention, there’s a lot of little things in there that nobody’s ever seen before.”

Cocaine Bear is currently expected to hit theaters in 2022.