Searchlight ingests ‘Electric Kool-Aid Acid’

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Fox Searchlight Pictures were the highest bidder for Gus Van Sant’s next project after the Harvey Milk biopic.

Based on the Tom Wolfe novel and written by Lance Black (his second straight project with Van Sant), The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test will tell 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.

Now that the project (which was set up last year) has a cash flow, we can expect filming to possibly begin in early 2009 and for it to be filmed in multiple locations. Van Sant is going to be booked in late November for the release of Milk which comes out on the 26th. Question now is to find a lead that bares some resemblance to Kesey – who looks like he was balding early into his manhood. Currently Film Colony’s Richard Gladstein (Paper Man) is attached to produce.