HBO sets Katharine Graham biopic

Laura Linney circling Joan Didion script

By MICHAEL FLEMING

HBO is developing an untitled film about the life of Katharine Graham, who took the reins of the Washington Post and led the paper during the Watergate investigation that brought down the Nixon administration.

Joan Didion is writing the script, and Laura Linney is circling the project to potentially play Graham. Robert Benton is attached to direct, though sources emphasized that the telepic is still in its nascent stage.

Laura Ziskin, Julie Goldstein and Pam Williams are executive producers.

Graham ascended to publisher after the suicide of her husband, Philip, who ran the newspaper. She went on to write the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir "Personal History."