'Vicious Bear': Yogi is a junkie

In December 1985, the researchers could not, after the autopsy, more than reach a single conclusion: the black bear that they had found in the Chattahoochee National Park, in the Appalachian mountains, in the north of the State of Georgia, a specimen of almost 67 kilos, had died of a cocaine overdose.

Near the male ursid —the most common species in the United States— was the sports bag that had contained more than 30 kilos of drugs (at that time it was estimated that it would have brought about 15 million euros on the market) and that had launched a drug dealer from an airplane.

Around the body of the animal, 40 open and empty packages.

In the expert report they found a brain hemorrhage, a perforated stomach and all kinds of disasters in his organs.

History has taken many turns (as the years have passed,

(its original title is much more explicit,

which arrives in theaters in Spain this Friday.

Elizabeth Banks and Keri Russell, on the set of 'Vicious Bear'.

How did the cocaine get into the bear's possession?

The culprit was Andrew Thornton II, the son of a wealthy Kentucky horse breeder, who had gone from being a narcotics officer to a convicted drug dealer.

With his Cessna plane, he returned loaded from Colombia in September 1985, and had thrown—apparently the vehicle was failing due to overload—other bags out the door before jumping himself with a parachute.

As soon as he got out of the aircraft, his head hit the tail of the device, he apparently lost consciousness and ended up crushed in a driveway at a house in Knoxville, in the bordering state of Tennessee.

He was still wearing night vision goggles, a bulletproof vest, and Gucci loafers.

In his pockets, the plane key, $4,500, knives and two pistols.

The police searched for the wreckage of the airplane,

which appeared hours later crashed in North Carolina, and following the flight plan they found nine large sports bags full of cocaine.

Three months later, the coke bear and the tenth bag appeared.

There are still two more turns to this story.

The bear was stuffed and christened

a play on the name of the most famous Colombian drug trafficker in history, and, after passing from hand to hand, is now on display as a tourist attraction at the Kentucky For Kentucky store in Lexington.

Anything goes to attract tourists.

The bear 'Pablo Eskobear', also known as 'Cocaine Bear', in the Kentucky store where it is exhibited stuffed.

And the next surprising turn of events comes from the hands of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the directors of

or

and producers of

two of the most imaginative guys in Hollywood, and who got fired from

when they clashed with Lucasfilm over the comedic tone they wanted to inject into the script.

The script is the work of Jimmy Warden, a former production assistant to Lord and Miller on

who gave it to his bosses for appreciation (they were excited about it) and has been part of Lord and Miller's deal with Universal Studio.

Upon beginning production, in late 2019,

It was to be directed by the Radio Silence collective (filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and producer Chad Villella), but the trio preferred to focus on the new

This is how the actress and director Elizabeth Banks entered, who added to her acting curriculum

or

a blockbuster as a director

which gave rise to all a saga) and a commercial cataclysm

Lord and Miller had already collaborated with her and have given her full freedom.

Banks has decided that except for the name of the drug dealer, Andrew Thornton II, the rest was invented and narrated halfway between black comedy and a gore film.

did not kill anyone, contrary to the bear who is the protagonist of the film —simply, bear—, a plantigrade who kills anyone who gets in the way of drugs.

In

, the filmmaker says: "The film could be seen as the bear's revenge story."

And hence the portrait of the mammal as a wild animal, although its behavior is understandable: as if Yogi Bear had become a junkie and, therefore, his criminal career was justifiable.

The public has reacted with passion, and it has already raised 76 million euros worldwide, after even appearing at the Oscars ceremony.

Elizabeth Banks and the bear, at the last Oscar Awards ceremony.

Vicious Bear

was shot in Ireland from August to October 2021 and most of its budget (32 million euros) was allocated to the computer recreation of the animal.

In the cast, a lot of familiar faces thanks to the number of characters —as if they were following a scriptwriter's manual, almost only those who have children in their care will be saved—: Keri Russell (whose husband in real life and in the series The

Matthew Rhys, plays Thornton in a cameo), O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Ice Cube's son), Alden Ehrenreich (the Han Solo from the movie that got Lord and Miller fired), veteran comedians Margo Martindale and Isiah Withlock Jr, and Ray Liotta, in the first posthumous film to be released after his death and to whom

In the opening sequence, the Norwegian Kristofer Hivju

playing a hiker, Olaf, who along with his fiancée Elsa (a double nod to

are

in the Appalachians: they will be the first to come across the furious animal .

The film is clearly part of a new wave of love for the B series, titles like

(with the incombustible Gerard Butler),

(Nicolas Cage plays Nicolas Cage) or even

(a saga that was born with zero pretensions, before sweeping the box office), heiress to popular film classics from a few decades ago like

(titles never lie).

The Z series, which feeds on the remains of the B series with even smaller budgets, has already produced its own versions of junkie animals: the production company The Asylum, kings of this market, has finished Attack of the Meth

(crocodile plus narcotics), and in the US

(mega shark with drug monkey) is available.