It's probably safe to say there's been just a few liberties taken with this "true story."
Directed by Charlie's Angels helmer Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear is indeed inspired by real-life events that saw a black bear ingest an entire bag of devil's dandruff worth $15 million while minding his own business in the Chattahoochee-Oconee national forest back in 1985.
In reality, the poor bear simply ate the drugs and died shortly after, but, as we figured, this movie is going to... embellish the tale just a tad!
This first red band trailer sends the eponymous high-as-a-kite bear on a coke-fuelled killing spree, as the cops attempt to take him down and a gang of dealers tries to find out if he left any of their merchandise intact (spoiler: he didn't).
It remains to be seen how much mileage CB will get out of its rather silly premise, but we can't deny that this is a damn entertaining trailer!
How did the bag of sniff wind up in the woods in the first place? Corrupt narcotics officer Andrew Thornton, who had become the head of an international drug smuggling operation, was transporting the cocaine by plane when he ran into engine trouble. Panicked, he dumped the drugs out the door before escaping via parachute, but the chute didn't open, and Thornton died on impact 50 miles away in Knoxville.
Cocaine Bear stars Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Matthew Rhys, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Kristofer Hivju, Christian Convery, Brooklynn Prince, Margo Martindale, and Ray Liotta (in his final performance).
The comedy thriller is set to hit theaters on February 24, 2023.