Pals will promote Halberstam’s final book

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 to 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.”

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.