Jon Stewart has become much loved (and hated in some circles) for The Daily Show, but doing that doesn’t give him much time for anything else. He has taken small acting roles in the likes of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back and Death To Smoochy, but in order to make his feature directorial debut he’ll be taking an 12-week break from The Daily Show this summer (with John Oliver filling in for him).
Deadline reports that Stewart is set to write and direct Rosewater, based on the 2011 book ‘Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity and Survival’ by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy. The book is about Canadian-Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari’s four-month stint in a Tehran, Iran prison. He was accused of plotting against the government.
After the ordeal, Maziar Bahari appeared on The Daily Show to promote the book. This led to Stewart and Bahari became friends, and the host starting to think about turning the book into a movie. He’s commented, “I am a television person who is accustomed to having a thought at 10 a.m. and having it out there at 6:30 p.m. and moving on, so this is a little scary, yes. But one of the reasons we are in this business is to challenge ourselves, and I really connected to Maziar’s story. It’s a personal story but one with universal appeal about what it means to be free.”
Shooting is scheduled to begin in June.
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