Travel Movie Watch: ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’ (original) (raw)

Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 04.28.09 | 12:08 PM ET


Move over, Fear and Loathing. There’s a new drug-addled, road tripping book-turned-movie in town. A film adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test—which follows Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters cross-country in a school bus named “Further”—is due out in 2010. Production details are still thin on the ground, but the New York Times notes that Gus van Sant will direct, while Dustin Lance Black, who recently won an Oscar for writing van Sant’s “Milk,” will provide the screenplay.

That still leaves one crucial question: who will play Kesey himself? Rolling Stone reports that van Sant had been eyeing Heath Ledger for the role before his death last year. Now, it looks as though Jack Black and Woody Harrelson are the front-runners.

Whenever a cult favorite like this one gets the adaptation treatment, every decision is scrutinized and skepticism runs high. Who do you think should play Ken Kesey? And do you like the look of the project so far? Or, as one commenter on the Rolling Stone article put it, is this a book that should have been left alone? (Via the Book Bench)

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.