Jon Stewart Directs Film (and Considers Facial Hair?)

North Haven resident Jon Stewart is taking a three-month break from his popular The Daily Show to direct Rosewater, a film based on the book, Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity and Survival a memoir by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy. Stewart wrote the screenplay and is also signed on as one of the film’s producers.

The comedian has served as executive producer on numerous projects, but Rosewater will be Stewart‘s directorial debut. He’ll be missed on The Daily Show, but we wish him the best of luck in this new endeavor. Maybe he’ll come back sporting some distinguished, director-like facial hair, the way he did after returning from vacation back in 2010?

Like the book on which it’s based, Rosewater tells the true story of Bahari‘s time imprisoned in Iran‘s most notorious prison, suffering through brutal interrogation sessions at the hands of a man he knew only by his smell… you guessed it—rosewater.

“A riveting, heart-wrenching memoir, Then They Came for Me offers insight into the past 50 years of regime change in Iran, as well as the future of a country where the democratic impulses of the youth continually clash with a government that becomes more totalitarian with each passing day. An intimate and fascinating account of contemporary Iran, it is also the moving and wonderfully written story of one family’s extraordinary courage in the face of repression.” (reprinted from Amazon.com)