Jon Stewart will take a 12-week hiatus from hosting Comedy Centrals The Daily Show to make his feature directing debut this summer. Stewart has written the script, and will direct Rosewater, an adaptation of the book Then They Came For Me: A Familys Story Of Love, Captivity And Survival. Published in 2011 by Random House, the book is Maziar Baharis harrowing ordeal of leaving London in June 2009 to cover Irans presidential elections. With a pregnant fiance left behind, the BBC journalist expected to be away for a week. Instead, he spent the next 118 days in Irans most notorious prison being brutally interrogated by a man he knew only by one thing: he smelled of Rosewater. Bahari wrote the book with Aimee Molloy. Scott Rudin will produce with Stewart and Gigi Pritzker. Pritzkers OddLot Entertainment is financing the film.
Stewart will take about 12 weeks off in the summer. In his absence, Daily Show regular John Oliver will be guest host for eight weeks of fresh shows.