Cocaine Bear Being Turned Into A Franchise?
Social media lit up over a story about cocaine dumped in the ocean, suggesting Cocaine Bear could be followed up by Cocaine Shark, and director Elizabeth Banks is open to the idea of a sprawling cocaine-verse.
If it’s not strange enough Hunger Games actress and Pitch Perfect 2 director Elizabeth Banks is making a movie about a drug-crazed bear, she’s now considering turning the film into a franchise. Banks tells People that Cocaine Bear, the upcoming action comedy about a bear on cocaine, might just end up being the first in a long line of movies about wild animals that are also on cocaine.
This news comes after it was reported that New Zealand Police found more than 3 tons of cocaine floating in the Pacific Ocean. The cocaine was apparently abandoned by cartels who were unconcerned about the effect drugs could have on the local aquatic community. The news caught the attention of Cocaine Bear fans, who immediately began calling for the creation of Cocaine Shark.
The fervor reached the attention of AMC Theaters, which put out a poll asking its followers whether a Cocaine Bear or a Cocaine Shark would win in a fight. The bear won in a landslide, presumably because the voters assumed the fight would take place on land and never caught an episode of Street Sharks when they were a kid.
Elizabeth Banks told People that she’d heard about the online hullabaloo, and said that she would, in fact, be interested in making a shark-themed sequel to Cocaine Bear. However, she said that she’d only make it if the movie had a great story. Presumably, just the idea of a shark having access to enough cocaine to kill 3,000 elephants is not enough to fill up 90 minutes of screen time.
It would make sense that a news story would inspire a sequel to Cocaine Bear since the film itself is based on a news story. Back in 1985, a drug smuggler dumped 79 kilograms of cocaine above the Georgia wilderness in an attempt to save both his overloaded plane and his life. He ended up saving neither, and the abandoned drug horde was found, and eaten, by a black bear.
Of course, the real-life version of the story differs from Cocaine Bear, in that the real bear simply died. That’s generally what happens when you eat 79 kilos of Cocaine, bear or not.
Instead of choosing to adapt a bear-centric version of Stand By Me in which four bear cubs go out searching for a dead body, Elizabeth Banks chose instead to turn Cocaine Bear into something like a comedic, wilderness-based version of Jaws. Cocaine Shark would, presumably, be an ocean-based version of Jaws, and who knows whether such a strange combination could ever be successful?
First thing’s first, however — Hollywood needs to find out whether a bear on drugs will put butts into seats. Cocaine Bear is set to arrive in theaters on February 23rd. If the film is successful, and writers somehow figure out how to make a drugged-up shark interesting, then we might eventually see Cocaine Shark make its way to theaters. Further sequels, such as Cocaine Hippo, Cocaine Dingo, and Cocaine Human surely can’t be far behind.
