Elizabeth Banks to direct Cocaine Bear based on legendary true story

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

After helming Charlie's Angels, Deadline has reported that Elizabeth Banks is looking to step behind the camera once again for Cocaine Bear, which has been described as "a character-driven thriller inspired by true events that took place in Kentucky in 1985." Elizabeth Banks will produce Cocaine Bear alongside Max Handelman through their Brownstone Productions banner, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller also set to produce the project that has been scripted by Jimmy Warden.

If you're not aware of the true story that serves as the inspiration for Cocaine Bear, well, it's a doozy. In 1985, convicted drug smuggler Andrew Thornton was on a smuggling run from Columbia and had dumped several packages full of cocaine before bailing from the plane himself. Unfortunately, he hit his head on the tail of the aircraft and wound up in a free fall to the ground where he was found dead in someone's driveway. Several months later, a 175-pound black bear was found dead after devouring approximately $15 million worth of cocaine that had been dropped by Thornton. "Its stomach was literally packed to the brim with cocaine," the medical examiner who'd performed the bear's necropsy said. "There isn't a mammal on the planet that could survive that. Cerebral hemorrhaging, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, renal failure, heart failure, stroke. You name it, that bear had it." I love it. Production on Cocaine Bear is slated to get underway this summer.

In addition to Cocaine Bear, Elizabeth Banks to also set to star as Ms. Fizzle in a live-action adaptation of The Magic School Bus. Banks is also attached to direct and star in Invisible Woman for Universal.