Ray Liotta and Keri Russell are amongst the latest batch of actors to join Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear.

O’Shea Jackson, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Alden Ehrenreich are also set to join the cast of the story which follows a real-life 175-pound bear who died of an apparent cocaine overdose. The story is based on a 1985 New York Times article, the bear was found dead among 40 opened containers with traces of cocaine, apparently dropped from a plane by a convicted drug smuggler because he was carrying too heavy a load while parachuting.

The film is said to be a “character-driven thriller inspired by true events that took place in Kentucky in 1985.”

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Banks will direct from a script by Jimmy Warden. Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Aditya Sood are producing for Lord Miller, in addition to Brian Duffield and Banks and Max Handelman of Brownstone Productions. Robin Fisichella will executive produce.

Filming is due to begin in Ireland in August.

Liotta can be seen next in the ‘Sopranos’ prequel ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ and ‘No Sudden Move.’ Russell recently appeared in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.’