The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart is a man of many talents, it seems. Though largely his passion lies in news media, and telling stories that most other mainstream news outlets wouldn’t dare touch with 20 foot poles.
So recently he took a bit of time off from the Daily Show (a brief hiatus that practically strapped a rocket to the career of John Oliver in the process) to make his first visit to the director’s chair for a film he also wrote the script for – seriously, the guy somehow found the time to draft, re-draft, and finalise a film script in between filming and writing four episodes of TV a week? Screw Beyonce as a time motivator. Jon Stewart is the freaking King.
That film ended up being Rosewater, based on the true story of Maziar Bahari – a British-based journalist who was captured, held, and tortured for 118 days whilst on assignment in Iran.
Bahari had previously appeared on The Daily Show prior to his capture, and real footage from that show was used against Bahari during his investigation. But that particular piece of information was not used during filming, and does not appear in the film. Rather, the ordeal provided the impetus for Stewart to briefly step away from his duties at The Daily Show in order to tell a story that he felt needed to be told.
Rosewater stars Gael Garcia Bernal, and is set for release in November of this year.
