Van Sant takes on
psychedelic film

Gus Van Sant and Lance Black are attached to the film version of Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. The book follows a cross-country road trip with a group called the Merry Pranksters--which included Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest--to the 1964 World's Fair. The travelers dropped LSD throughout the trip, inspiring Kesey to pen Cuckoo's Nest.

According to Variety, after The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was published in 1967, entrepreneur Alfred Roven purchased the film rights. He met with filmmakers over the years, but a plan to produce never came to fruition. Roven left the rights to his children after his death, who brought it to the attention of producer Richard Gladstein.

Van Sant cast Kesey in his 1993 film Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and dedicated his 2002 film Gerry to the author, who died in 2001. Black and Van Sant are also collaborating on a biopic of slain San Francisco politician Harvey Milk. (The Advocate)