Watch: Official trailer released for film about Kentucky’s famous ‘Cocaine Bear’
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The true story of cocaine bear
The “Cocaine Bear” movie that’s set to premiere in February 2023 seems a lot different than the true story of the bear that ate cocaine dumped out of a plane by a former Lexington cop. Here’s the real story of what happened.
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The official trailer for “Cocaine Bear,” the movie about a bear who fatally overdosed after eating cocaine, has been released.
The movie, which the trailer says is “inspired by true events,” will be released in February.
The film stars Ray Liotta, Keri Russell and Alden Ehrenreich, according to IMDB. It’s directed by Elizabeth Banks.
Liotta, 67, died in May while shooting a new movie in the Dominican Republic, according to the Associated Press.
Cocaine Bear, along with an Apple TV Plus limited series “Black Bird,” were Liotta’s final times working on camera before his death, Variety reported.
Cocaine Bear was the victim of a fatal overdose that occurred when it ate a cache of cocaine that Andrew Thornton, a former Lexington narcotics officer turned drug smuggler, threw out over northern Georgia in September 1985.
Thornton was carrying $15 million in cocaine when he died parachuting out of a plane over Knoxville in September 1985. That saga is chronicled in Sally Denton’s 1989 book, “The Bluegrass Conspiracy.”
Herald-Leader reporter Karla Ward contributed to this story.
This story was originally published November 30, 2022 at 3:10 PM.
