Cocaine Bear Screenwriter Has Ideas for Sequels

By Russ Burlingame

Jimmy Warden, the director behind The Babysitter and the upcoming Cocaine Bear, has not just one, but many ideas for follow-ups to the story of Cokey the Bear. In a new interview, he said that the concept of the movie is more flexible than it may seem -- at least in terms of its overall theme -- and so he has plenty of ideas for what he would do if he had the opportunity to make a sequel happen. The film, which cost around $35 million, is expected to earn between $15 million and $20 million in its opening weekend -- not a bad haul, considering it's up against the second week of Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania as well as things like Avatar: The Way of Water still taking up plenty of oxygen in the room.

The strangeness of the movie has got fans excited, and the camp value of a bear-led revenge thriller from the director of Pitch Perfect 2 feels like it's absolutely on target. So in recent weeks, fans and critics have started thinking about it as a potential franchise-starter.

"Not just a sequel. Many sequels. Cocaine Bear in Space is where we would probably end," Warden told Variety.

After they asked a follow-up, he added, "I'm f---ing with you about Cocaine Bear Goes to Space. But for the sequels, I definitely have ideas for that. The bear's not the bad guy in this movie. What happened is a product of circumstance and everybody else's poor decisions. I think that is a story that we can continue to tell over and over again. I'd be excited to tell it because there are some really good ideas that we have for the subsequent movies."

The new action-comedy is based on the true story of a black bear who ate an incredible amount of cocaine after a drug runner's plane crashed in 1985. Andrew C. Thornton II was a former narcotics officer and convicted drug smuggler, who dumped a duffel bag of cocaine out of his plane because his plane was too heavy. Thornton intended to recover the bag himself, jumping out of the plane with a parachute, but the parachute was faulty, and Thornton died. Three months later, a 175-pound black bear was found dead in Georgia alongside 40 opened plastic containers of cocaine. The tale became popular in the region, and the animal itself was taxidermied and is still displayed at the Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky, where you can also buy "Cokey the Bear" merch. Naturally, the movie is taking a lot of liberties. 

Cocaine Bear stars Keri Russell (The Americans), Emmy-winner Margo Martindale (The Americans), Emmy-winner Ray Liotta (The Many Saints of Newark), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story), O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family), Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones), Kahyun Kim (American Gods), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project) and newcomer Scott Seiss.

Directed by Elizabeth Banks (Charlie's Angels, Pitch Perfect 2) from a screenplay by Jimmy Warden (The Babysitter: Killer Queen), Cocaine Bear is produced by Oscar® winners Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, The Mitchells vs. The Machines) and Aditya Sood (The Martian) for Lord Miller, by Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman (Pitch Perfect franchise) for Brownstone Productions, and by Brian Duffield (Spontaneous). Robin Fisichella (Ma) will executive produce. 

Cocaine Bear is coming to theaters on Friday.

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