As a man says in the trailer for the Netflix documentary “The Legend of Cocaine Island,” there are Northern fairy tales and Southern fairy tales. Northern ones start off, “Once upon a time…,” while a Southern one begins, “You ain’t goin’ to believe this s—.”
“The Legend of Cocaine Island” boasts that it’s a Southern fairy tale, and it features a handful of down south good ‘ol boys who get caught up in a myth about a stash of $2 million worth of cocaine to the point that they start living like Scarface.
“I was talking that smack, that drug talk,” one of the documentary’s subjects Rodney Hyden says in the trailer. “Say hello to my little friend!”
Directed by Theo Love, “The Legend of Cocaine Island” premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival under the title “White Tide: The Legend of Culebra.” It’s now set to premiere on Netflix with this more sensationalized title. But the story is crazy enough to be worth it. Here’s the full synopsis:
Rodney Hyden is an American dreamer: a small business owner and family man from Central Florida. But after he’s wiped out by the Great Recession, Rodney hears a story that could be his ticket out of his mounting debt: a tale of a map, an island and buried treasure. Fueled by a combination of economic desperation and blissful ignorance, Rodney hatches a plan to retrieve a possibly mythical $2 million stash of cocaine from its reported Caribbean hiding place. With the help of a colorful group of misfits – and without prior drug-running experience – Rodney sets out in pursuit of his very own American dream, with surprising results.
“The Legend of Cocaine Island” is a Sidestilt Production in association with Dreamco Pictures. The documentary premieres globally on Netflix on March 29.
Watch the trailer above.