Cocaine Bear
|

Cocaine Bear’s Killer Animal Has an Appropriate Nickname

Ahead of the release of her upcoming film Cocaine Bear, Elizabeth Banks reveals an apt nickname for the titular killer animal that’s sure to keep fans hooked.

Speaking to Total Film, Banks said the bear got an interesting pet name on set during production for the dark comedy thriller. They simply referred to the animal as “Cokey,” a name everyone involved seemed very high on. “Everybody’s been very much on the same page about tone and levels of gore and the bear,” she said. “That’s been the longest lead time, putting together sequences with Cokey – [that’s] how we refer to the bear – and getting Cokey totally ready for audiences.”

“Cokey” is the central focus of Cocaine Bear, which is based on the true story of a 1985 incident during which a black bear ingested a duffel bag of coke originally belonging to a drug runner that disappeared in a plane crash. The bear subsequently goes on a murderous rampage throughout a small town in Georgia, leading to locals and tourists banding together to survive the animal’s attacks.

Despite the movie’s real-life roots, there were key alterations made from the actual events. The film is gorier than what happened in actuality considering the bear that consumed the cocaine isn’t known to have killed anyone. Additionally, what transpired leading to the bear’s death from an overdose remains unknown. The 175-pound black bear found the drug after it dropped out of an overloaded plane flown by an ex-narcotics officer and convicted drug smuggler Andrew Thornton II. Thornton died after jumping out of the plane with a defective parachute and died while the bear was discovered three months later alongside 40 opened containers of cocaine.

Cocaine Bear is one of the last films to feature acting legend Ray Liotta who died in his sleep last May while shooting Dangerous Waters in the Dominican Republic. Liotta, known for his roles in Goodfellas and The Many Saints of Newark, stars as Dentwood in the movie while Felicity’s Keri Russell, Straight Outta Compton’s O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Sweet Tooth’s Christian Convery-Jennings also appear. Filming took place in Ireland between August and October 2021, with its much-anticipated trailer released last November.

Cocaine Bear opens in theaters on Feb. 24.

The post Cocaine Bear’s Killer Animal Has an Appropriate Nickname was originally published on CBR.

Oh hi there 👋
It’s nice to meet you.

Sign up to receive awesome content in your inbox, every week.

We don’t spam!

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *