Uh-oh. Is LSD gonna become trendy?
The Ultimate Trip: "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" Heads to the Big Screen
The onscreen version of Tom Wolfe's literary cult hit The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is primed to hit theaters by 2010. When published in 1968, the book shattered cultural perceptions of the peaceful, passive hippie zeitgeist by introducing the Merry Pranksters, author Ken Kesey's roving gonzo army of LSD-fueled pioneers who tripped about the country, mixing it up with rowdy Oregonians, Bay Area hippies, Hollywood rockers, Hell's Angels and a flurry of left-handed characters that launched the psychedelic movement into mainstream America and ushered in the Grateful Dead.
Over the years, footage and audio of the Oregon-based Merry Pranksters have surfaced, but was little more than ragged, disjointed documentation of the group tripping and weirding out. Except for Neal Cassady's endless speed-jacked rap, there was little narrative. Now, director Gus Van Sant, an Oregon native, is helming the book's adaptation to the big screen with Milk and Big Love writer Dustin Lance Black. Milk's director of photography Harris Savides is also committed to the film.