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Cocaine Bear director Elizabeth Banks wants to make a Cocaine Shark movie
Featured Image Credit: Universal Pictures/Mark Conlin/Alamy Stock Photo

Cocaine Bear director Elizabeth Banks wants to make a Cocaine Shark movie

The idea was inspired by a drug discovery in New Zealand

The world has only just been introduced to the chaos that is Cocaine Bear, but director Elizabeth Banks is already discussing a possible follow-up in the form of Cocaine Shark.

Starring Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and the late Ray Liotta, Cocaine Bear really just does what it says on the tin.

The film, terrifyingly inspired by real events, follows a group of people being terrorised in a Georgia forest by a 500-pound apex predator who just so happens to have ingested a lot of cocaine.

As ridiculous as it all might sound, the movie has been well received by viewers who have rated it an impressive 74 percent Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes, with one reviewer praising the director as they wrote: "Elizabeth Banks did herself proud directing this goofy, gory but funny movie."

As Cocaine Bear is based on true events that took place in 1985, film fans couldn't help but demand a sequel when news emerged that New Zealand police recovered more than three tons of cocaine floating in the Pacific Ocean.

Obviously bears don't live in the ocean, but there is another terrifying predator that could work.

One film fan explained: "New Zealand fished three tons of coke out of the ocean. Movie producers: I'm ready to write the screenplay of Cocaine Shark."

Cocaine Bear is inspired by real events.
Universal Pictures

Another pitched: "Last Wednesday New Zealand police found 3 tons of cocaine in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean dumped by a drug-smuggling cartel. From the makers of “Cocaine Bear” comes…“Cocaine Shark!

Banks addressed the possibility of an ocean-based drug-fuelled horror during an interview with People last month, when she assured she was aware of the news of the cocaine discovery and of the conversations it had sparked.

When asked whether she might consider making a movie out of it, she responded: "I've seen that. If there's a great story, then sure."

"Jaws with cocaine, I don't see how that loses," the Hunger Games star added.


Internet users were quick to demand Cocaine Shark.
@DrewOden/Twitter

Banks later told Entertainment Weekly that she would make Cocaine Shark on two conditions. One; it has a great script, and two; it isn't compared to another iconic shark movie - Jaws.

She said: "I would seriously consider anything with a script as good as the script was for Cocaine Bear. It's got to have just some great elements.

"I would never want to be compared to Jaws, that's a classic that I don't ever want to be compared to. So if it were differentiated enough, then anything's possible."

Once Cocaine Shark was out in the ether, a Twitter poll sought to determine who would win if it found itself up against Cocaine Bear.

"There can only be ONE!" the poll explained.

I'm sure the winner of any fight between a shark and a bear would largely be determined on where it took place, but Twitter users made clear they were on the bear's side as the mammal won with more than 75 percent of the vote.

The success of Cocaine Bear so far indicates it would be worthy of a sequel, but only time will tell whether Banks decides to use the cocaine in the ocean as her inspiration.

Jimmy Warden, writer of Cocaine Bear, offered up another idea as he indicated there could be an entire series dedicated to the theme of animals on cocaine, as he told Dexerto: "There could be a cocaine anything movie. We’re gonna do a Cocaine Dinosaur movie!”

Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity, Drugs, Animals