Film about legendary Kentucky 'Cocaine Bear' starring Ray Liotta to be released in 2023

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The story of an infamous Kentucky bear reported in the New York Times in 1985 is the subject of a new film being directed by actress and director Elizabeth Banks. The movie is scheduled for release on February 24, 2023.

If you live in Kentucky you may know the story of "Cocaine Bear," a 175-pound black bear who unfortunately consumed the contents of a duffle bag filled with more than 70 pounds of cocaine. (That's roughly $15 million worth of "blow.")

The drugs were dropped from an airplane by a local drug smuggler, Andrew Thornton. The drug smuggler, who was the son of a wealthy Kentucky family of horse breeders, didn't fare too well either.

According to a display at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation headquarters, Thornton fell to his death when he bailed out of the plane, "hit his head on the tail of the aircraft" and didn't open his parachute until it was too late.

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Thornton's body was found near Knoxville, Tennessee, and nine duffle bags filled with coke were eventually recovered along his plane's flight path. Unfortunately Cocaine Bear found the 10th bag of coke in the woods just south of the Tennessee-Georgia state line. He was found dead next to a ripped-open bag with about 76 pounds of cocaine in his stomach.