Woodward Sells TV Rights to ‘Veil’

Washington Post editor-reporter Bob Woodward has sold the TV production rights for “Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987” (Simon & Schuster) to MGM/UA for $1 million.

Woodward’s agent, Irving (Swifty) Lazar, confirmed Friday that the controversial book will be developed as a miniseries by the Culver City-based studio.

“Lee Rich, chief operating officer and head honcho at MGM/UA bought the rights to Bob Woodward’s book and will do it as eight hours of TV,” Lazar said.

The best-selling expose of William Casey’s CIA, released last week, just went into a second printing, Lazar said. The 300,000 new copies mean that a total of 800,000 copies will have been shipped to the nation’s book stores, he said. “Veil” will appear on the Los Angeles Times nonfiction best-seller list Sunday at No. 4.

Woodward, 44, is an assistant managing editor for the investigative staff at the Post, which excerpted “Veil” before its Oct. 1 publication date.