Bob Woodward, Joan Didion and Seymour Hersh are among those who have agreed to participate in a short promotional film for David Halberstam’s “The Coldest Winter,” the final book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist who was killed last spring in a car accident.
The film, expected to run 25-30 minutes, will premiere Nov. 11 at New York City’s Two Boots Pioneer Theater and then will screen in dozens of cities nationwide in November and December. The events, sponsored by local, independent bookstores, will feature music, panel discussions and “other customized entertainment,” according to Powell’s Books, an independent seller based in Portland, Ore.
The Halberstam film is the second of Powell’s’ “Out of the Book” series, an alternative approach to the traditional author tour that debuted in June with a piece for novelist Ian McEwan’s “On Chesil Beach.” Halberstam’s book is a Korean War history he had likened to his celebrated work on the Vietnam War, “The Best and the Brightest.”
“Not only will this pay tribute to one of the pre-eminent journalists of our time, it will bring attention to the Korean War — often called ‘the forgotten war’ — at a time when military and political judgment are once again in tragic conflict,” Hyperion president Robert Miller said in a statement issued Tuesday by Powell’s.
According to the director of marketing and development at Powell’s, Dave Weich, the film will also include interviews with Korean War veterans and with Halberstam’s widow, Jean Halberstam. Weich expects filming to take place the last week of September.
Promotion for “The Coldest Winter,” coming out in late September, will start well before the film; Woodward, Didion and other friends of Halberstam’s will be giving readings to coincide with the book’s publication. Halberstam died April 23 in a crash near San Francisco, where the author was on his way to interview former NFL star quarterback Y.A. Tittle for a planned book about the 1958 NFL championship game between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts. Tittle, who was with the San Francisco 49ers when that classic game was played, joined the Giants a couple years later.