Portland filmmaker Gus Van Sant was arrested on a drunken driving charge.
Police photo Filmmaker Gus Van Sant. Van Sant, 54, was arrested at 1:48 a.m. Thursday on Burnside Street, in the city center, said Sgt. Brian Schmautz, Portland Police Bureau spokesman.
A breath test showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 percent, Schmautz said. That’s more than twice the state limit, 0.08 percent.
An officer initially noticed that the headlights on Van Sant’s vehicle weren’t on. Van Sant had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, smelled of alcohol and failed the sobriety tests, according to Schmautz.
Calls to Van Sant’s film company seeking comment were not immediately returned. Van Sant directed such films as “My Own Private Idaho,” “Drugstore Cowboy,” “Good Will Hunting” and “Finding Forrester.”
Several of his films have been set in Oregon, including “Elephant,” about a high school shooting, which won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003. He has been filming “Paranoid Park” in and around the city.
