HBO Films signed journalist Joan Didion for an untitled film project about the life of Watergate-era Washington Post publisher, Katharine Graham.
If the project gets off the ground, the company hopes to sign Laura Linney (who scored an Emmy for John Adams) to play Graham and Robert Benton (who directed Kramer vs. Kramer) to direct.
The literary blog Isak reminds us of all the film projects that Didion (most recently, the author of The Year of Magical Thinking) worked on while writing her signature brand of razor-sharp journalism. Check it out:
“With her late husband John Dunne, she co-wrote 1971’s “Panic in Needle Park”; the adaptation of Didion’s own novel, “Play It As It Lays” (1972); a remake of “A Star is Born” (1976); an adaptation of Dunne’s novel, “True Confessions” (1981); and “Up Close and Personal” (1996). She also wrote the stage adaptation of her book, The Year of Magical Thinking.”