Upcoming Netflix Film You Won't Believe Is A Real Thing
Lost treasure, Colombian drug lords and hippopotami....Netflix's next big hit?
Cocaine and Hippos. Not since the days when sharks and tornadoes agreed to join forces has a pairing sounded so intriguing yet threatening. This is not the result of a Planet Earth wrap-party gotten wildy out of hand however, but the title of one of Netflix's newest projects.
Written by Jordan VanDina, and starring Jermaine Fowler (Superior Donuts, Sorry To Bother You), Cocaine Hippos was inspired by the true story of Pablo Escobar, and the drug lord's penchant for smuggling wild and exotic animals over from Africa to live with him on his vast Colombian estate.
In 1980's Colombia, Escobar was practically a God; with an estimated worth of $50 billion at his peak, the world's drug trade in the palm of his hand, and an empire ruled with an iron fist, with as many as 4,000 murders being linked directly to the de-facto founder of what would become the Medellín cartel. Put simply, What Pablo wanted, Pablo got. And it just so happened that what he wanted stretched to, but was not limited to, his own personal zoo. Along with the aforementioned hippos, Escobar "acquired" everything from giraffes and elephants to ostriches and zebras, at one point playing host to upwards of 200 animals at his infamous Hacienda Nápoles.
When he was killed in 1993, naturally the Colombian government stepped in to relocate all of the non-native fauna roaming around his 20sq km property. All except for 4 hippos. Left unchecked, and with only a wholly ineffectual wire fence to keep them from with the nearby Magdalena River, the hippos thrived, with 4 becoming dozens, and now they find themselves almost as synonymous with the area as Don Pablo himself.
Cocaine Hippos takes elements of these events and shapes its story around a suitably wild central plot which, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is described as being very tonally similar to the likes of The Hangover and Tropic Thunder. "Cocaine Hippos will follow a group of friends who stumble across a clue leading to Escobar’s lost treasure. They then embark on a wild trip that pits them against con men, local drug lords and the deadly hippos that Escobar smuggled into Colombia back in the '80s."
VanDina has been on writing duty for both the upcoming Animaniacs revival series as well as the Vince Vaughn starring Hulu property The Binge, so you can expect him to be well versed in the kind irreverence needed to pull off a project such as this. Fowler, as well, can be seen as a particular boon, with a starring role in the much anticipated Coming 2 America coming later in the year, he may just be the right sort of rocket to strap this film to.