Van Sant and Fox Searchlight drink "Kool-Aid"

By Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox Searchlight has picked up "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," a project based on the 1968 Tom Wolfe book. Gus Van Sant is directing.

"Kool-Aid" is Wolfe's account of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" author Ken Kesey and a group dubbed the Merry Pranksters as they drive across the country in a DayGlo-painted school bus dubbed Furthur, reaching personal and collective revelations through the use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs.

The film adaptation was first packaged last year after producer Richard Gladstein, who had the rights, enlisted Van Sant and writer Dustin Lance Black.

Van Sant returns to theaters on November 26 with "Milk," which stars Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch. The Focus Features release is generating advance awards buzz for its depiction of California's first openly gay elected official, San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter