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.
I saw a doc about these Merry Pranksters. They drove a bus from town to town setting up dance parties and giving out LSD. At one event a fledgeling Grateful Dead was seen playing among the hippies. What an interesting time the 60’s must have been. Buses of merry makers giving out free drugs in the name of expanding your consciousness. These are the kinds of missionaries that I would let into my house for lunch.
This wheeled tube of pranksters is a fantastic subject for a film. If there was any vehicle that was to embody the 60’s – this bus would be it.
The above picture is where Furthur lies to this day.
hey when is the movie coming out?
I still say Elephant was one of the worst pills of shit I’ve ever seen
Van Sant is just some emo kid who makes movies about school shootings and suicide. He is a waste of talent and life.
Van Sant seems like the perfect director for this. I love when a director and a project seem perfect for each other (see: Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”).
my parents use to pal around in the haight & ashbury days…i live in the bay area and have heard a few of the original pranksters speak…great stories and to actually hear stories from them and see how they have gone on to be succesful people in there adult days is kind of inspiring for the young society out there to no that there are good people out there and that life goes on, haha but as most know they were pretty wild back then.
I think that is a great place for a bus. That image expands the mind so much more than it could sitting in a museum.
Brings back memories of my youth, although I didn’t see the Dead until 1972 living outside of Philly the spirit was there. “May you live in interesting times.” The music and the madness in uneven dose (excuse th’ pun!). A wild thyme as the Airplane sang……Looking forawrd to this project! I’ll reboard the for 2 hrs.!
You should check out the book sometime. It’s really good. Sad to see the bus rotting away like that. To quote Dr. Jones “It belongs in a museum!”
Hope the movie is 1/2 as good as the book.