Elizabeth Banks Wanted To Pitch Marvel For ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ But No One Called Her Back

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The cocaine bear in Elizabeth Banks’ “Cocaine Bear” is an impressive feat of visual effects wizardry, but there was an actual person behind the 500-pound, drug-addicted beast. Meet Allan Henry, the motion capture performer who played the bear on set so that actors such as Keri Russell, Ray Liotta, and Alden Ehrenreich had something real to interact with during scenes. When Liotta fights the bear in the film’s third act, for instance, he was actually facing off with Henry on set. Henry is a motion capture veteran who already has experience playing animals thanks to his work on the “Planet of the Apes” trilogy. But the actor said said in an interview with /Film that “Cocaine Bear” was a different beast because the eponymous animal is not as humanistic as the apes in “Planet of the Apes.”

Outer Banks recently returned for its third season, and has now been renewed for a fourth on Netflix.The hit drama centres on two groups of teenagers – the Kooks and the Pogues – as they search for a lost treasure in the community of Outer Banks in North Carolina.Most of the action focuses on the Pogues, who are led by charismatic leader John B (Chase Stokes) as they embark on a mission to find his missing father, where the come across a treasure map.Season one was released in April 2020, and season two followed in July 2021, before the third season was released on February 23 this year.Season three of the show sees the characters “once again caught up in a race for the treasure, quite literally running for their lives.“They’re broke and far from home, they can’t trust anyone, Ward (Charles Esten) and Rafe (Drew Starkey) are hungry for revenge, and there’s a ruthless Caribbean Don who will stop at nothing to find the bounty,” the synopsis continues.“Was the treasure ever within their reach? Or was it all a trap to stop them once and for all? Either way, it’s the Pogues against the world – and the only way out is together.”A release date for season four has yet to be confirmed, though it likely won’t be arriving on Netflix for a while.Given the gap of over a year and a half between seasons two and three, the likelihood is that season four will be released between spring and summer 2024 at the earliest.The show’s official Twitter account confirmed that a fourth was on the way on February 17 this year, writing: “RENEWED FOR SEASON 4, BABY!”RENEWED FOR SEASON 4, BABY!

Netflix's hit series, , is back with season 3 and a whirlwind adventure as the Pogues chase clues toward a city of gold and navigate their romances and friendships along the way. Stars Chase Stokes (John B.), Madelyn Cline (Sarah Cameron), Rudy Pankow (JJ), Madison Bailey (Kiara), Jonathan Daviss (Pope), Carlacia Grant (Cleo) and Austin North (Topper) all return for a season of love, hardship and sunsets in Outer Banks, North Carolina. Ahead of season 3's release, ET's Cassie DiLaura sat down with the show's stars to discuss  filming, the explosive plot and — of course — all the drama-filled romances that make the Netflix series a can't-miss for viewers.  The third installment of  sees the show's lead characters, John B and Sarah Cameron, test the boundaries and the trust within their relationship. When the couple was stranded on «Poguelandia» island, their relationship came easy. However, when John B. is reunited with his father, he begins to hide things from Sarah.

Cocaine Bear has everyone talking this weekend!

“‘Nobody likes to watch people getting eaten by lions”

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The comedy, which is directed by Elizabeth Banks, whom The Post said, “keeps the powder gags fresh throughout,” is loosely based on a true story of a black bear in Georgia that ate millions of dollars worth of lost cocaine. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” which was in first place last week, creeped to second with an $8.3 million-dollar take.The plummet in sales for the superhero flick, which cost around $200 million to make, marks the worst-ever second-week drop for a Marvel film, according to Deadline.Remaining in third was “Avatar: The Way of Water” with $1.1 million in sales.

Ray Liotta's family and famous friends gathered on Friday to pay tribute to the late actor as he received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.The actor died in his sleep on May 26, 2022, while in production on an upcoming film,, in the Dominican Republic, but he was aware of the Walk of Fame honor prior to his death.Liotta's daughter, Karsen, spoke at the ceremony, and she shared exclusively with ET's Will Marfuggi how much the honor meant to her father. «It was a huge honor for him and he was proud of himself, as me and my whole family were,» she noted. «I know it was definitely very special to him and it was a monumental moment in his career.»The proud daughter also said her dad would have been «surprised» by the outpouring of support following his death.«I mean, of course everybody loved him, but he didn't look at his life and his work as if everybody's watching all the time,» she explained.

Arguably an early contender for the wildest movie of 2023, Elizabeth Banks‘ “Cocaine Bear” is based on the true story of a 175-pound Black Bear who overdosed on cocaine after ingesting the drug in 1985. While the bear did not kill anyone and died shortly after consuming cocaine, Banks and screenwriter Jimmy Warden fictionalize a story where the bear goes on a killing spree while massively high on cocaine.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic The last time a movie was marketed with a this-sounds-so-wretchedly-over-the-top-not-to-mention-insane-it-could-almost-be-fun low/high concept, the results, to put it kindly, were mixed. “Snakes on a Plane,” which sounded like a title that Don Simpson scrawled in white powder on a table at 4:00 a.m., was a movie that wore its brain-deadness on both lapels. But 17 years ago, that title inspired mountains of online chatter, to the point that the filmmakers incorporated bits and pieces of the obsessive fan gabble into the movie, most famously the Samuel L. Jackson line, “I have had it with these mothefuckin’ snakes on this motherfuckin‘ plane!” The result was that “Snakes on a Plane” felt like the first piece of brazen Hollywood schlock that was crowdsourced. The audience went in thinking: It may be trash, but it’s our trash.   

“A bear did COCAINE!” screams a frazzled Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), trying to explain a patently absurd concept like a rational person – and exposing the vast capacity for humor that lies between the two. “Cocaine Bear,” a film that really puts the high in high-concept comedy, contains promise and peril in its premise.

The title says it all. Just like Snakes On A Plane was about just that, the new horror comedy Cocaine Bear is about a 500 pound bear on a jihad after coming upon a ton of cocaine dropped into rural Georgia on a drug run gone wrong. The bear ingests the coke and soon you have a beast roaring out of control devouring whatever human comes on to his path. It is all not to be taken seriously, but fortunately director Elizabeth Banks (Charlie’s Angels, Pitch Perfect 2) is smart enough to give audiences hungry for a ‘Jaws’ in the wilderness, some nice scares mixed in with the laughs plus a bit more bang for their buck than just a marketable title.

director Elizabeth Banks keeps the powder gags fresh throughout, as the mammal maims her way through a Southern forest preserve. The movie about blow never blows.Running time: 95 minutes. Rated R (bloody violence and gore, drug content and language throughout.) In theaters.The hysterical film is based on a true story in the loosest possible sense.

Todd Gilchrist editor On Feb. 24, Ray Liotta is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, just shy of a year since his death at the age of 67. The honor comes the same week as the release of “Cocaine Bear,” the sensational based-on-a-true-story film directed by Elizabeth Banks in which he plays a character she describes as “a gangster … but he’s also an unfit grandpa as well.” That characterization also encapsulates the breadth of his accomplishments on both film and TV as an actor, which range from mobsters and tough guys to loving fathers — and plenty in between. Ahead of the ceremony, Banks tells Variety that she cast Liotta after remembering her experiences working with him on the 2011 film “The Details.”

In an interview with the New York Times last September, actor-filmmaker Elizabeth Banks shared a piece of career advice from Lorne Michaels that’s been of enduring value to her.

Elizabeth Banks has a special memory of the late Ray Liotta.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “Cocaine Bear” director Elizabeth Banks is worried about her mother seeing the horror comedy when it opens on Friday. “I’m going to be honest with you, no one knows what to make of it when I tell them about it,” Banks told Variety at the movie’s premiere Tuesday night at Regal LA Live. “My poor mother is the least informed. She’s going to go with my aunts and they’re going to lose their minds. I told her she’s going to be mad. She will laugh and she’s going to love Margo Martindale and Isiah Whitlock Jr. and the dog. Not enough people talk about the dog, Rosette. She’ll love those parts, but she’ll close her eyes for a lot of it.”

Elizabeth Banks and O’Shea Jackson Jr. are stepping out for the premiere of their new movie!

Keri Russell's new action horror comedy has one impressive ensemble cast. It also serves as something of a reunion of actors — which Russell says might not have been an coincidence.The actress walked the red carpet at the premiere of her new action horror comedy in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and spoke with ET's Ash Crossan about the film's link to the universe — namely through a cast that includes her, Alden Ehrenreich and O'Shea Jackson Jr.«There's a lot, yeah!» Russell said with a smile. «Maybe that's what [director Elizabeth Banks] was going for it by casting us! Yeah.»Ehrenreich previously starred as a young Han Solo in 2018's , while Jackson played Kawlan Roken in the TV series  Russell, meanwhile, played an anti-hero outlaw Zorii Bliss in 2019's Russell's Bliss managed to avoid getting killed in her installment in the saga, leaving fans wondering if they may see her again in a future tale.The actress played coy, however, when asked about the possibility, and left the door open, simply sharing, "[It] could happen!«As for, it also serves as something of a reunion for, as it also stars Russell's real-life love and former TV co-star Matthew Rhys.

Elizabeth Banks is sharing her fond memories of working with the late Ray Liotta on what would be his final film.The actress and filmmaker walked the red carpet at the premiere of her new film,, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and she spoke with ET's Ash Crossan about getting the chance to work with Liotta shortly before his death last May.«He never saw the final movie, but he did see all of his scenes,» Banks shared. «And he saw the bear, which is the most important thing, because the poor guy like everyone had to act with, you know, a guy in a black suit and a stuntman and just sort of hope that it looks cool.»In the high-energy action horror comedy, the titular cocaine bear — for obvious reasons — was created entirely with CGI, and Banks explained that Liotta came in to re-record some audio, which is when he was able to see the finished product, or at least his part.«He came in for ADR eight days before he passed away, actually, and he loved it. He was so happy.