“The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” (Tom Wolfe)
I haven't read this book in years, but could be an interesting adaptation.
Variety.com - Van Sant in the 'Kool-Aid' mix:
Nearly 40 years after its original publication, Tom Wolfe's hallucinogenic tome “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” is headed for the bigscreen.
Gus Van Sant is attached to direct, and Lance Black (“Big Love”) will write the script. FilmColony's Richard Gladstein is producing, and he's in the process of setting the project with a financier.
The book told the story of a cross-country road trip that “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” author Ken Kesey orchestrated with a group called the Merry Pranksters. Driving in a psychedelically painted bus from California to visit the World's Fair in New York in 1964, Kesey and his band used the trip as a way to turn on those they met to the mind-expanding wonders of LSD.
... Van Sant, whose latest film, “Paranoid Park,” was honored at Cannes, signed on quickly. The filmmaker cast Kesey in his 1993 film “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and dedicated his 2002 film “Gerry” to the author, who died in 2001. Van Sant enlisted Black, with whom he's collaborating on a biopic of slain San Francisco pol Harvey Milk.It's likely Wolfe will not be a major character in the film, which will focus on Kesey and include events that occurred after the road trip.
I am afraid the film might suck: glancing at previous Van Sant movies, there have been some interesting stylistic attempts, but nothing that I really liked. Drugstore Cowboy was ok, for the decade it was released (I haven't seen it since then, so can't really say much), and My Private Idaho didn't do much for me either (though it has been released by the Criterion Collection, so I might take a second glance, one year). So a skeptical eye is probably in order.
Technorati Tags: books, Film, film_history, LSD
