Elizabeth Banks has the head of the Cocaine Bear in her office. Not the actual, taxidermied head of Cokey the Bear — that’s still attached to the rest of the animal’s body in Kentucky. But the version used in the upcoming horror-comedy Cocaine Bear? Yeah, that’s with her. Based loosely on a true story, Cocaine Bear centers on a bear that goes on a rampage after consuming a truly heroic amount of cocaine. In real life, the bear didn’t rampage but instead seemingly died almost immediately, but the story still became popular lore in the region, and the animal itself was taxidermied and is still displayed at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky, where you can also buy “Cokey the Bear” t-shirts, hats, and Christmas ornaments, among other things.
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The movie, of course, is taking quite a few liberties, turning a sad and strange but ultimately fairly low-key situation into a bombastic thriller-comedy. And Banks directed the masterpiece-in-the-making.
“This head, that is what our bear looks like,” she said during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. “These nice gentlemen would walk around with Cokey as a lighting reference — and now that head is in my house — it’s in my office, and recently a repair guy came over, walked in there, turned a light on, and lost his mind.”
You can see the full interview below.
Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, this wild thriller finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500- pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of cocaine and gone on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow…and blood.
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.
