After more than ten years as the host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart is taking a little break to try his hand behind the camera in the world of film.
Deadline reports that Stewart will step down from his hosting duties on the Comedy Central juggernaut for twelve weeks this summer while he films Rosewater, a film he wrote based on Maziar Bahari’s book Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story Of Love, Captivity And Survival. The story depicts Bahari's real life encounter as he travelled to Iran to cover the 2009 presidential election, thinking he'd only be away from his pregnant wife for one week, but ultimately he endured imprisonment and interrogation for 118 days by a man he only knew one thing about: he smelled like rosewater.
Mega-producer Scott Rudin will produce alongside Stewart himself, while John Oliver will step in to host The Daily Show in Stewart's abscence. Seems like a pretty intense movie for a directorial debut, but with Stewart being extremely well-versed in the political realm, I'm hoping he can create something that's thought-provoking as well as exciting. We wish him luck, but we want to hear from you guys: are you excited about Stewart taking on a project like this? Sound off in the comments.