Local writer's book gets star treatment

Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton has signed to star in "The Widows' Adventures," a movie based on the novel of the same name by writer Charles Dickinson of Arlington Heights, Variety reported Friday.

Dickinson's novel tells the story of two widowed sisters who embark on an unlikely cross-country driving trip. One of the sisters recently became blind and the other sister never learned to drive.

"So the blind woman drives and the sighted women tells her which way to go," Dickinson says. To avoid traffic, the pair drive from Chicago to Los Angeles on back roads from midnight until 4 a.m. The comic odyssey takes the sisters on a trip of life-changing revelations.

Filming for the "dramady" should start this summer or fall. It will be produced by Gold Circle Films, which is coming out soon with "Chilled in Miami," starring Renee Zellweger, and "The New Daughter," starring Kevin Costner.

Dickinson, 56, is also the author of "A Shortcut in Time," "Crows," "Rumor Has It" and "Waltz in Marathon," and the short-story collection "With or Without."

His stories have been twice included in the O. Henry Awards, and his fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire and other publications.