Jon Stewart will take a 3-month break from The Daily Show this summer to make his feature film debut.
(Deadline)Stewart has written the script, and will direct Rosewater, an adaptation of the book Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story Of Love, Captivity And Survival. Published in 2011 by Random House, the book is Maziar Bahari’s harrowing ordeal of leaving London in June 2009 to cover Iran’s 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 Iran’s 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. Pritzker’s 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.
Ambitious undertaking and a nice variation on the parade of TV variety show personalities who make their move to feature films often doing little more than big-screen variations of their familiar comedic persona. Stewart has played this close to his vest, quietly optioning Bahari’s book under auspices of his own, Busboy Productions. It’s always clear that Stewart can deftly shift between news satire in the first half ofThe Daily Show whenever the situation merits a more serious tone. It’s also clear that he’s one of the few late night hosts who not only interviews authors but actually takes time to read their books. Deadline expresses some strange surprise, unable to “remember when a well established daily talk show host has taken a hiatus like this to pursue a passion project” — because, right, we’ve all been wondering when Jay Leno would write direct his big-screen epic about collecting classic cars.
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Way to go Jon Stewart. Very impressive and worthy undertaking.
sounds good.
this new format is atrocious. a. trocious.
The site looks great guys! Well done!!
one more thing – LOVE the new Chinatown tagline!
‘The trick is not minding’ always made me feel guilty because I did/do/will. Towne/Polanski fatalism is more soothing.
This is probably a good project for Stewart to cut his directing teeth on – straight-forward, single-layered drama in the right political tone perfect for Stewart (and one that won’t piss-off his usual detractors).
*I like the new look, too, now that I’ve found the News column to keep my bearings. (Some of us find it hard o give up training wheels.) Kind of miss seeing who’s been on recently, though.
I’m totally digging the new look!
Completely unexpected and really exciting!
Should be fascinating to see what Jon Stewart does behind the camera, especially with something that, at least seems, to be so intense and dramatic in tone. Can’t wait to see more updates on this project.
For those interested, here’s a link to Stewart’s interview with Bahari:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-6-2011/exclusive—maziar-bahari-extended-interview-pt–1
I am conflicted! I remember Stewart’s interviews with this man and can’t wait to see Stewart tackle this subject. However, as much as I like Oliver, I will miss seeing Stewart for those 12 weeks. I admire his courage to break out and direct this movie though!