‘Cocaine Bear’ writer Jimmy Warden on the attack scene that was too outrageous even for this movie
Jimmy Warden had been working around Hollywood for years at talent agencies, as a production assistant, and under directors, all while sitting on a stack of scripts he’d written. One of those scripts, his first break, became Netflix’s 2020 horror comedy The Babysitter: Killer Queen.
But there was another one with “such an insane premise” that he didn’t think any studio would touch it.
That script was Cocaine Bear. And, as it turns out, Universal Pictures was willing to take a chance on a story that’s exactly what it sounds like. Not to mention, the project sold right before the pandemic hit.
“If something didn’t stop it before, this pandemic is definitely going to stop it,” Warden recalls telling himself. “And it was like, nope, the bear just did another line and kept going. Nothing can stop the bear.”
Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear is loosely based on the real story of a cocaine smuggler who, in 1985, dropped more than 200 pounds of cocaine above the Chattahoochee National Forest. The unsuspecting bear that found and consumed part of the stash unfortunately died. But in Warden’s version, the bear instead goes on a coke-fueled rampage.
“In the true story, the bear dying is really sad,” Warden says. “So part of me wanted to give her this redemption story.”
And Warden’s version of a “redemption story” meant there would be blood—so much blood.
“I knew that I wanted it to be extremely violent and graphic, almost to the point where it crosses the line to such a degree where you have to laugh,” Warden says.
Striking that balance between gore and guffaws required a director who understood Warden’s tone. While Banks may not have any horror credits to her name, she’s certainly adept at navigating the irreverent side of comedy, both on her work as an actor (Wet Hot American Summer, 30 Rock, Zack and Miri Make a Porno) and in the projects she directs and produces through her company, Brownstone Productions (the Pitch Perfect franchise, Shrill, Charlie’s Angels).
“Choosing this script to make, it was a really big swing, but one that I never really wavered about,” Banks says. “The movie that you [see] in the theater is basically the movie I saw in my mind’s eye when I read the script.”
“She’s describing it as like a swing or a huge chance. But she had all of us fooled if this wasn’t in her wheelhouse,” Warden adds. “We totally jive when it comes to what we both find funny, what we both think will play. So it was great to have her come on board and make it her own.”
To Warden’s surprise, there wasn’t much that didn’t make it into the final version of the film—even a scene with the film’s preteen characters trying some of the cocaine they find in the park.
“If you make it past page three after kids have tried cocaine and then are attacked by a cocaine bear, you’re probably gonna make it through the end of the movie,” Warden says. “There’s not much I can really do to surprise you at that point.”
That said, one has to wonder what did wind up on the cutting room floor of such a wild ride as Cocaine Bear.
Turns out there was a version of the script that had country star Alan Jackson shooting the music video for his 1992 hit “Chattahoochee” in the Chattahoochee National Forest when, you guessed it, Cocaine Bear attacks.
“The problem was it wasn’t connected to any sort of character,” Warden says (much to my personal chagrin as a lover of ’90s country music).
“You and me would’ve been like, ‘Hell, yeah! What an amazing moment in movie history,’” Warden says. “Everybody else would’ve been like, ‘Why the hell are we watching this totally unconnected subplot?’”
An obviously missed opportunity aside, Cocaine Bear is the sort of fever dream idea that’s weird enough—and well executed enough—to actually break through in an entertainment landscape overrun with content. And it’s not insignificant that it’s backed by a major studio. To Warden, the fact that the script he thought would stay at the bottom of his pile is getting a wide theatrical release should signal to other studios that it’s okay to step outside of tentpole IP and well-worn franchises.
“All I wanted to do is show [audiences] something a little different,” Warden says. “And that doesn’t mean that only subversive movies can exist. But I’m hoping that it proves that they can do really well.”
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