'Daily Show' host to helm Iran-themed movie

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

This Nov. 30, 2011 file photo shows television host Jon Stewart during a taping of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" in New York. AP Photo

Jon Stewart is taking time off from "The Daily Show" to direct a film based on an Iranian-Canadian journalist's nightmare in a Tehran jail, the Comedy Channel cable network said Tuesday.
 
The feature film, "Rosewater," grew out of interviews that Maziar Bahari gave "The Daily Show" after he was detained in solitary confinement and subjected to torture for 118 days during the post-election protests that gripped Iran in 2009.
 
Stewart -- one of America's most-watched political comedians and host of "The Daily Show" for 14 years -- adapted a script from Bahari's best-selling account of his ordeal, "Then They Came for Me." On its website, the Hollywood Reporter said Stewart would be taking 12 weeks off, starting from June, to direct the film, with John Oliver taking his place in the anchor's chair.
 
"Rosewater" will mark Stewart's directorial debut.