He is currently seeking production money for his long-gestating untitled Harvey Milk biopic – a film that is in conflict with Bryan Singer’s The Mayor of Castro Street, (both surround the life and assassination of Milk, the first openly gay man elected to any substantial political office in the U.S). Singer isn’t anywhere close to filming his vision and Variety reports that Gus Van Sant is only ‘attached’ to helm this new project, but I can see how his filmmaking priroties might shift to this different kind of road movie.
The trade reports that FilmColony's Richard Gladstein is producing and Lance Black (the screenwriter who wrote Van Sant’s Milk script) will write the screenplay for The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. The Tom Wolfe novel tells 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.
The reason why this particular project might be close to Van Sant’s heart is that he is connected to Kesey – the novelist made an appearance in his 1993 film “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and Gerry was a project that he dedicated to Kesey who died in 2001. Plus it also has the cache of having the screen rights tied up for so long. Currently Van Sant is busy with a collaborative short film project and his Paranoid Park will most likely get a fall release via IFC First Take.
