Elizabeth Banks to direct Cocaine Bear, based on a true story involving cocaine and a bear

Someone get Bart the Bear's agent on the phone.

Elizabeth Banks will direct Cocaine Bear at Universal Pictures, EW has confirmed, a "character-driven thriller inspired by true events that took place in Kentucky in 1985." Banks' The Lego Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller will produce, with Jimmy Warden (Netflix's The Babysitter: Killer Queen) writing the script.

Additional details are being kept under wraps, but the true events in question seem to be described in a 1985 New York Times article, which reported that a 175-pound black bear died of a cocaine overdose in northern Georgia. The bear was found "among 40 opened plastic containers with traces of cocaine," which were dropped from a plane piloted by a convicted drug smuggler.

That stranger-than-fiction story is now the latest directorial effort from Banks, who previously helmed Pitch Perfect 2 and 2019's Charlie's Angels. She will also produce the film, along with Aditya Sood, Brian Duffield, and Max Handelman.

That's all the information we have for now, but let's all immediately start lobbying for Grizzly Man director Werner Herzog to be involved somehow.

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