Our Work on Cocaine Bear

For Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear, Wētā FX created... the bear. To that, we added cocaine, gore and various FX and then we integrated ‘Cokie’ with the rest of the cast and the plate photography.

The tale is based on a true story and then embellished by the writers with our bear very much interacting  (often violently) with drug runners, Scandinavian tourists, the law and families who just want to experience nature.

Through her story arc, Cokie goes through a transformation – from dry, fluffy, innocent forest-dweller (and single mum) to blood-soaked nightmareish apex predator.

For her fur, the team created four distinct base grooms to which FX simulations added various substances and liquids to ensure a believeable look at each stage of her rampage. Did we mention the gore?

On set, the team had a ‘stuffy’ for lighting reference. Created by our friends at Wētā Workshop, this realistic representation of a bear’s head helped us get the lighting just right.

They also created bear snout head-gear so a stunt performer could represent the bear on set and allow the actors to have something to interact with and get all the eye lines right. There were interchangeable snouts for various purposes and adjustments could be made for bi-pedal interactions.

For hand-to-paw and wrestling interaction, the bear performer donned a ‘fat-suit’ which our team replaced with the CG Cokie for the final shots.

There are many bear shots in this film and our compositing team integrated Cokie and her cubs into each one. Lighting was mostly natural but the shots around the waterfall required CG set extensions and digital lighting to achieve the desired look.