“Cocaine Bear”

There’s a lesson here, folks. Stories are EVERYWHERE!

It’s not often you wake up and these words immediately cross your social media path: Cocaine. Bear. Elizabeth. Banks.

But that’s what happened yesterday. When I finished my morning writing and opened Twitter, the first thing I saw was this tweet from Brian Duffield:

Then this Deadline article: Elizabeth Banks To Direct ‘Cocaine Bear’ Thriller For Universal, Phil Lord & Chris Miller.

Elizabeth Banks, who most recently directed the latest Charlie’s Angels installment, has signed on to direct Cocaine Bear for Universal Pictures. Written by Jimmy Warden, the film is described as a character-driven thriller inspired by true events that took place in Kentucky in 1985.

Cocaine Bear. Oh. My. God. Talk about high concept… with emphasis on high!

I contacted Brian. Knowing the… um… unusual way his creative instincts operate (The Babysitter, Spontaneous), I figured this must have been his idea. He said, “No, it was all Jimmy! I just encouraged him.”

That’s “Jimmy” as in the project’s screenwriter Jimmy Warden. Turns out, we follow each other on Twitter, so I reached out to congratulate him. A “huge fan” of my blog, Jimmy said “he couldn’t have done it without Brian.”

Writers supporting other writers. A beautiful thing.

Even more wondrous that Phil Lord and Chris Miller are aboard as producers because they are screenwriters, too (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie).

Then there’s Elizabeth Banks. Apart from being an actor and director (Pitch Perfect 2), she has a screenwriting credit as well on Charlie’s Angels, which she also directed.

Put all that talent together, I predict this project is going to be a smash hit!

Great concept. Killer title. And writers involved as far as the eye can see.

Which leads me to this takeaway.

Friends… stories are everywhere.

EVERYWHERE!!!

If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t run a series every April: A Story Idea Each Day for a Month.

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2010)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2011)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2012)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2013)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2014)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2015)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2016)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2017)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2018)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2019)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2020)

That’s over 300 ideas, each of them drawn from news articles I flagged down over the course of the year. Every day, I post one, then join with Go Into The Story readers to brainstorm possible movie or TV series based on the underlying story concept.

It’s an excellent creative exercise and I will be running the series again this April for the 12th consecutive year.

Here’s the kicker: The ideas are free! No strings attached!

To be sure, there are stories I find which I keep for my own writing files. That doesn’t mean the ones I feature on the blog are bad ideas. They’re just not anything I’m passionate about taking on.

So if you find one you like in the series, go write it!

The point is this: If stories are EVERYWHERE, including a 1985 saga about a bear who ingests a shit ton of cocaine which evolves into a character-driven thriller that gets a green light from Universal Studios…

Doesn’t it make sense you should keep your damn eyes open all the time?!

Every day. Whenever you see, hear, or read an interesting news piece, ask yourself: Is this a movie? Is this a TV series?

Because you never know when you may stumble upon a great story concept.

Congratulations to Jimmy Warden, Brian Duffield, Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Elizabeth Banks. I not only cannot wait to see Cocaine Bear, I hope to interview some of the folks behind this project to help promote its release. Good luck, CB Team!

Read my 2014 interview with Brian Duffield here.