Jon Stewart takes break from The Daily Show to make directorial debut

 

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This article titled “Jon Stewart takes break from The Daily Show to make directorial debut” was written by Ben Child, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 6th March 2013 10.54 UTC

The host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart, is to take a 12-week break this summer in order to make his directing debut on the true-life political drama Rosewater, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Stewart has also written the screenplay for the project, an adaptation of BBC reporter Maziar Bahari’s New York Times bestselling memoir Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity and Survival. It is based on Bahari’s experiences at the hands of the Iranian government in 2009 while covering an election protest.

The Iranian-Canadian journalist was interrogated and tortured for 118 days before eventually being released on the condition he spied and reported on Iran’s enemies for the Revolutionary Guard. Instead, Bahari fled the country and returned to his home in London. He has not been back to Iran, where he was subsequently sentenced in absentia to 13 and a half years in prison plus 74 lashes.

Stewart interviewed Bahari on The Daily Show around the time of the book’s publication.

While Stewart takes his sabbatical, Daily Show correspondent John Oliver will sit in for him as host. The British comic has been a regular on the Comedy Central programme since 2006. Stewart has hosted The Daily Show since 1999, prior to which he had a short-lived career as a romantic lead on Hollywood films such as Wishful Thinking and Playing by Heart. He still occasionally makes acting appearances in films such as Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy and Steve Carell comedy Evan Almighty.

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