Premiere - Cocaïne bear : A premiere at Regal LA Live in Los Angeles

By Mulder, Los Angeles, Regal LA Live, 21 february 2023

Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Brian Duffield, Aditya Sood, Alden Ehrenreich, Keri Russell, Max Handelman, Elizabeth Banks, Brooklynn Prince, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jimmy Warden have attended the Premiere of Cocaine Bear at Regal LA Live in Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, February 21, 2023.

Itw Elizabeth Banks

Itw Christopher Miller and Phil Lord

Itw Keri Russell

Itw Alden Ehrenreich

Itw Brooklynn Prince

Itw Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Itw Jimmy Warden

Itw Kristofer Hivju withGry Hivju

Itw Margo Martindale

Itw O Shea Jackson Jr

Itw Scott Seiss

Cocaine Bear is an upcoming American dark comedy action film directed and co-produced by Elizabeth Banks and written by Jimmy Warden. It is loosely inspired by the true story of the Cocaine Bear, an American black bear that ingested a duffel bag full of cocaine in 1985. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, and Ray Liotta in one of his final performances before his death.

In December 2019, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were announced to be producing an untitled horror comedy project inspired by the true story, and based on a spec script written by Jimmy Warden. The producers approached Radio Silence collectives Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett to direct, but both opted out of the film in favor of making the fifth Scream installment. On March 9, 2021, Universal Pictures announced that the film was in development. It was also confirmed that the film would instead be directed by Elizabeth Banks, and produced by Banks and Max Handelman for Brownstone Productions, who joined the producing team alongside Lord, Miller, Aditya Sood for Lord Miller Productions, and Brian Duffield. The ensemble cast was revealed between July and August 2021. Principal photography took place in County Wicklow, Ireland, between August 20 and October 17, 2021. The production budget was $35 million, with a large portion of it going to Wētā FX to create the bear with CGI.

The biggest challenge for Elisabeth Banks and her production team was surely the main character of the film: the famous cocaine bear. It was out of the question to use an animal on the set, so they had to make this monster. The director didn't want to miss her bear: if it didn't look real enough, she knew that the audience wouldn't follow. She decided to use the best, and entrusted her central character to WETA, the famous special effects company created by Peter Jackson and known worldwide for its work on the Lords of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 200-2003), Planet of the Apes (1963- 2017), Avatar (James Cameron, 2009-2023) franchises. The director confides: "They immediately grasped the tone of the film, and the fact that the bear was on coke gave them a lot of latitude in the way they could make him move and move around. In fact, it's as if Coke gave him a superpower, a magic powder that we just had to sprinkle on our predator! First of all, we had to decide on his appearance. The director opted for a realistic bear in the style of those seen in National Geographic documentaries. After reviewing dozens of different species in the ursid family, the director and her team settled on a female Malay bear. The Malay bear is omnivorous by nature, loves trees, is an excellent climber, with a massive stature and a sunlit, muscular auburn coat, curved paws with large, sharp claws and a short snout. This snout is said to be a great asset for fighting and hunting, but limits the beast's sense of smell, which can consequently hamper its ability to discern what is natural or not, edible or not, like... a bag of cocaine, for example.

Cocaine Bear is scheduled to be released in the United States on February 24, 2023, by Universal Pictures.

Discover the official photos on our Flickr page

Synopsis :
The film is based on an amazing story: in 1985 a shipment of cocaine disappeared after the plane that was carrying it crashed and was in fact ingested by a brown bear. CRAZY BEAR is a black comedy about a mismatched group of cops, criminals, tourists and teenagers who all converge in the heart of a forest in deepest Georgia to the very spot where an enraged and bloodthirsty super predator of more than 200 kilos is roaming, driven mad by the ingestion of a huge dose of cocaine.

Cocaine Bear
Directed by Elizabeth Banks
Written by Jimmy Warden
Produced by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Aditya Sood, Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman, Brian Duffield
Starring Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta
Cinematography : John Guleserian
Edited by Joel Negron
Music by Mark Mothersbaugh
Production companies : Lord Miller Productions, Brownstone Productions, Jurassic Party Productions
Distributed by ; Universal Pictures
Release date : February 24, 2023 (United States), March 15, 2023 (France)
Running time : 95 minutes