LAURENS, Iowa, Work has started on a film about the northwestern Iowa man who drove his lawn tractor 240 miles to Wisconsin to visit his sick brother.
Production personnel including director David Lynch were in Laurens yesterday to lay the groundwork for a month-long filming stint.
Assistant location manager Andrew Peterson says the film will trace the path Alvin Straight drove to Blue River, Wisconsin. Straight will be played by Oscar-nominated actor Richard Farnsworth.
Peterson says various scenes will be filmed in Laurens, including some in Straight's home.
Straight died at age 76 of a heart ailment in November 1996. His failing eyesight kept him from holding a driver's license, so he used his lawn tractor for the 5-mile-an-hour ride to visit his brother, Henry, who had suffered a stroke.
posted August 26th,
Copyright 1998 by The Associated Press
