Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Elizabeth Banksis open to creating a wider cinematic universe of animals on drugs.
Ahead of the release of Banks' new movieCocaine Bear, the phrase ‘cocaine shark’ began trending on social media Wednesday after New Zealand police reported they recovered more than three tons of cocaine floating in the Pacific Ocean, per theAssociated PressandThe Daily Beast.
Social media users relating the story to thereal-life tale of the cocaine bearand the upcoming film starring the lateRay Liottaresulted in AMC Theaters conducting a poll on Twitter. The poll asked fans to choose between a cocaine bear and a cocaine shark, which the bearwon in a landslide.
While speaking with PEOPLE on Wednesday, Banks, 48, says she was aware of the news out of New Zealand and the online clamoring for a cocaine shark follow-up movie.
“I’ve seen that. If there’s a great story, then sure,” Banks tells PEOPLE, when asked whether she would tackle another project featuring an animal on cocaine.
“Jawswith cocaine, I don’t see how that loses,” she adds.
Banks also tells PEOPLE that she “definitely didn’t shy away from” makingCocaine Beara gory, gnarly experience.
“In my initial presentation [I] brought to the table a lot of really gruesome real life photography of people who have had limbs ripped off and things like that, and giant gashes and bites,” the director says of pitching the movie. “And [I] just sort of said, ‘I want this…’ I wantedThe Revenant.”
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“Every time we talked about the bear, it was like, ‘It’s got to beThe Revenant,’ she adds, referencing the 2015Leonardo DiCapriomovie. “The first couple kills have to be that gnarly so that you understand that everyone should be afraid of the bear. That was a big part of it for me.”
Cocaine Bearstars Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, Margo Martindale, O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Jesse Tyler Ferguson in addition to Liotta in one of his final film roles.
Cocaine Bearis in theaters Feb. 24.
source: people.com
