THERE’S AN OLD ADAGE IN HOLLYWOOD that if you can just get a movie’s title right, that’s half the battle on the path to success. But what if your movie has a killer title, a stellar cast and features a bear hopped up on nose candy? Yes, that unicorn of cinema exists and its name is Cocaine Bear.
Its whacked premise is based on the wild true story of ’80s narcotics officer turned drug smuggler Andrew C Thornton II. On his last cocaine run, Thornton dumped kilos out of their malfunctioning plane into the Tennessee wilderness below. Some of it was found and ingested by a 175-pound American black bear, leading to its death. Tragic and bizarre, but also one hell of a story.
Cut to screenwriter Jimmy Warden in 2018, procrastinating, discussing his obsession with the facts behind the case. “At the end, once I thought that I had a pretty solid foundation for what had actually happened, I was like, ‘That is a great set-up.’”
