Elizabeth Banks Set To Direct "Cocaine Bear" For Universal With Phil Lord And Chris Miller Producing

Elizabeth Banks has landed her next directing project "Cocaine Bear" at Universal and wow does it sound like an exciting one. Jimmy Warden (The Babysitter: Killer Queen) is set to pen the script for the project which is described as a character-driven story based on real events that lead up to a bear consuming a large amount of cocaine.

Just on the title alone I'm already sold on watching this film because I have endless questions why cocaine and a bear would be mixed together. When hearing the title of the project I first thought it was a funny story that Chris Miller and Phil Lord (21 Jump Street, Lego Movie, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs) may have came up with while enjoying a couple of beers at a party but it turns out to be the opposite as it based on true story.

The story goes something like this: In 1985, a narcotics officer turned drug smuggler was transporting 40 kilos of cocaine from Colombia and dropped it at Chattahoochee National Forest. After leaving the drugs at the forest a curious bear comes along and unfortunately has a hungry belly, the bear ends up consuming all of the cocaine and drops dead, as one likely does when consuming 40 kilos in one sitting. Authorities end up discovering the bears body and declare it has broken the record for largest amount of cocaine ever consumed. Locals ended up giving the bear a homerun nickname "Pablo Escobear" then stuffed the bear's body and turned it to an unusual tourist attraction for anyone that happens to stop for a lovely hike through the Chattahoochee National Forest.

I'm very interested to see the direction Elizabeth Banks, Chris Miller, and Phil Lord take with this story as it seems to have an endless amount of comedic possibilities.

The news was first shared by Deadline