‘Cocaine Bear’: Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, And Ray Liotta Join Elizabeth Banks’ Insane Thriller

Cocaine Bear, a movie about a real-life coked-out bear that became the stuff of legend, deserves a top notch cast. And for director Elizabeth Banks, she’s definitely assembled one. Deadline reports Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson, Alden Ehrenreich, Ray Liotta, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson will star.

Based on the insane true story, Cocaine Bear follows events that took place in Kentucky in 1985, when a bear swallowed a cache of cocaine thrown from a plane by Andrew Thornton, a former Lexington narcotics agent who became a drug smuggler. Thornton died while parachuting out of the plane carrying $15M in cocaine over Knoxville.

Banks will direct, making this her third effort following Pitch Perfect 2 and the Charlie’s Angels reboot. She’s working from a script by Jimmy Warden, with Phil Lord and Chris Miller on board as producers.

There’s a ton of star power here, including a trio of Star Wars actors in Russell, who played Zorii Bliss in The Rise of Skywalker, Ehrenreich who is the other Han Solo guy, and Jackson who has a role in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Liotta is a screen legend who can be seen right now in Steven Soderbergh’s No Sudden Move, while Ferguson is coming off a decade-long stretch on Modern Family.

 

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.