Cocaine Bear is a bizarre premise for an action movie, and its’s even more fascinating that it’s a movie based on a true story. It’s enough gonzo weirdness for anybody, but its director could be prepared to go even further.
As the Cocaine Bear release date draws closer, director Elizabeth Banks has been talking about the prospect of the new movie firing up a thriller movie franchise built around the twin pillars of scary animals… and cocaine.
Everyone knows that the king of animal attack genres is the shark movie, spawned by the success of one of the best Steven Spielberg movies ever made and continued by the comedy movie franchise Sharknado.
Banks knows that any entry into the shark movie canon risks being compared unfavourably to Jaws and so she’s wary of the prospect of Cocaine Shark becoming a potential sequel unless she can meet those comparisons head-on.
The potential idea came about following the news that 3.2 tonnes of cocaine had ended up in the Pacific Ocean. If a bear can find cocaine in the woods – as happened in the Cocaine Bear true story – then maybe a shark could find cocaine in the sea. Banks said the prospect of “Jaws with cocaine” was potentially thrilling in an interview with People, but she added to Entertainment Weekly that a specific condition had to be met.
Banks said: “I would seriously consider anything with a script as good as the script was for Cocaine Bear. It’s got to have just some great elements. I would never want to be compared to Jaws – that’s a classic that I don’t ever want to be compared to. So if it were differentiated enough, then anything’s possible.”
Frankly, it’s tough to argue with Banks on that one. Certainly, comparisons with Jaws don’t do many movies any favours at all and, with the greatest of respect to Cocaine Shark, it might not quite have the pedigree of Spielberg’s masterpiece.
Whether there’s an aquatic sequel on the way or not, Cocaine Bear is due in cinemas later this month. It depicts the residents of a Georgia town attempting to survive the drug-fuelled ursine rampage, while the late Ray Liotta – in his final role – plays the drug lord trying to track down his lost supply.
Cocaine Bear is one of the most exciting movies coming this year, but it’s also worth getting excited for the Barbie movie release date, the Oppenheimer release date and the Fast and Furious 10 release date to name just a few.