Cocaine Bear: Keri Russell, Ray Liotta, and more added to cast

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

We all know that Sugar Bear can't get enough of that Golden Crisp, but have you ever seen what a bear can do to $15 million worth of cocaine?

Get your snouts ready for some candy because cast members for Elizabeth Banks' Cocaine Bear have been announced. Set to star in the upcoming film are Keri Russell, Ray Liotta, Alden Ehrenreich, O'Shea Jackson, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. The film marks Banks' second directorial feature after helming 2019's Charlie's Angels. While details are scarce at this time, Cocaine Bear has been described as "a character-driven thriller inspired by true events that took place in Kentucky in 1985."

If you're not aware of the true story that serves as the inspiration for Cocaine Bear, well, it's a doozy. In 1985, convicted drug smuggler Andrew Thornton was on a smuggling run from Columbia and had dumped several packages full of cocaine before bailing from the plane himself. Unfortunately, he hit his head on the tail of the aircraft and wound up in a free fall to the ground where he was found dead in someone's driveway. Several months later, a 175-pound black bear was found dead after devouring approximately $15 million worth of cocaine that had been dropped by Thornton. "Its stomach was literally packed to the brim with cocaine," the medical examiner who'd performed the bear's necropsy said. "There isn't a mammal on the planet that could survive that. Cerebral hemorrhaging, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, renal failure, heart failure, stroke. You name it, that bear had it." All hail Cocaine Bear. No animal has ever partied harder.

Production is set to begin on August 23 in Ireland. Jimmy Warden wrote the script, which I can only hope is as inspired as the premise itself.

Russell's next film is the long-delayed horror feature Antlers. Set for an October 29 release, Antlers takes place in an isolated Oregon town, where a middle-school teacher and her sheriff brother become embroiled with her enigmatic student, whose dark secrets lead to terrifying encounters with a legendary ancestral creature who came before them.

Liotta recently completed work on several films, including The Many Saints of Newark, and Matthew Coppola's Broken Soldier. He's also set to star alongside Kate Beckinsale, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis in Day's El Tonto comedy. In the upcoming film, a fool for love becomes an accidental celebrity only to lose it all.

Ehrenreich, best known for his starring role in Solo: A Star Wars Story, can be found starring in the Peacock series Brave New World. Meanwhile, Jackson is set to star in the Apple TV+ series Swagger in addition to having a major role in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney+. Lastly, Ferguson is enjoying some downtime after spending a decade on ABC's Modern Family as the hilarious character Mitchell.