STILL WAITING FOR THE LAST HURRAH

Woodward and Bernstein’s “Final Days,” the chronicle of Richard Nixon’s last 100 days in the White House, has been revived as a TV project, though it’s “at least two years away” from airing, according to its latest producer, Stu Samuels.

Former ABC exec Samuels and producing partner Frank Von Zerneck got to wondering last year what had happened to the 1976 best seller that followed the authors’ “All the President’s Men.” Dramatic rights were available and they concluded negotiations last fall. Britisher Hugh Whitemore (“84 Charing Cross Road” and TV’s “Concealed Enemies” about Alger Hiss) will do the adaptation.

Samuels said the timing may be better now to develop “Final Days” because Contragate may have stirred up old memories, the presidency is again on the public’s mind, “and Nixon continues to be in the public eye--a confluence of all these things.” Perhaps, he ventured, the subject matter needed time “to pass from being political to historical.”

Samuels promises a “compassionate” portrait of a tragic figure--”great effort will be made to do it with great respect not just to the presidency but to Nixon the man”--and “rigorous” attention to accuracy.