Jon Stewart will be taking a leave from The Daily Show for 12 weeks during the summer, starting in June. This will include eight weeks where the show will produce new episodes.
Stewart will take the break to make his feature directorial debut with Rosewater. The movie’s story will focus on that of BBC journalist Maziar Bahari’s New York Times best-selling memoir Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity and Survival, with Stewart also penning the adaptation.
“I am a television person who is accustomed to having a thought at 10 AM and having it out there at 6:30 PM and moving on, so this is a little scary, yes,” said Stewart. “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.”
Bahari’s book tells the story of his arrest by the Iranian government in 2009 while covering an election protest. The journalist was subsequently interrogated and tortured during the next 118 days.
OddLot Entertainment and will produce and finance the feature, with Stewart, Gigi Pritzker and Scott Rudin also producing, while Eli Bush will executive produce. Meanwhile, long time show correspondent John Oliver will fill in at the desk of The Daily Show during Stewart’s absence.
Source: HollywoodReporter.com
