Move over Jason Voorhees, there’s a new unstoppable killer in town. Elizabeth Banks has signed on to direct a new thriller for Universal titled Cocaine Bear, a film set to be produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo best known for their work on animated films like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and The Lego Movie.
Cocaine Bear will be based on the true story of a 175-pound black bear who consumed the contents of a duffle bag filled with more than 70 pounds of cocaine that had been dropped from an airplane by a local drug smuggler. The bear was later found dead due to an apparent drug overdose. The story was first reported by the New York Times in 1985 and was based on events that took place in Kentucky that year. Specific plot details are unknown at this time, but Deadline described the film as a ‘thriller’ based on an untitled spec written by Jimmy Warden. So, hopefully, audiences can expect this cocaine-fuelled bear to wreak havoc on 1980s Kentucky.
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While Banks made a name for herself acting in comedic films such as Wet Hot American Summer and The 40-year Old Virgin, she’s recently seen some success taking on a role behind the camera. Banks made her directorial debut in 2015 with the Anna Kendrick-led musical comedy sequel Pitch Perfect 2, which tells the story of an all-female a cappella singing group who try to beat out a competing German musical group in a world singing championship. Banks recently served as writer, producer, and director for the 2019 Charlie's Angels reboot, in which she also co-starred alongside future Happiest Season star Kristen Stewart and Naomi Scott.
Lord and Miller are the talented writing, directing, and producing duo behind many successful animated and live-action movies/tv shows. As producers, they won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for their work on the hit 2018 superhero film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. They are also responsible for creating the cult classic TV show Clone High, which is reportedly making a comeback on HBO Max.
Lord and Miller were hired by Lucasfilm to direct Disney and Lucasfilm's Solo: A Star Wars Story, based on a script by Empire Strikes Back writer Lawrence Kasdan. However, the duo was famously fired from Solo in 2017 citing “creative differences” and replaced by director Ron Howard.
Banks appears to have a good relationship with Universal, as she is also on board to direct a reboot of The Invisible Woman for the studio. Though the film is unrelated to Leigh Wannell's The Invisible Man, it is being developed by Universal as part of their recent efforts to focus on filmmaker-driven projects for the studios' library of classic monsters.
Cocaine Bear is scheduled to begin filming in summer 2021.
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Source: Deadline