Jon Stewart to Take Summer Break from ‘Daily Show’ to Direct a Movie
Jon Stewart is taking temporary leave of The Daily Show.
The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that the host of 14 years will be away from the Comedy Central broadcast for 12 weeks over the course of the summer — eight of them being weeks the show will produce new episodes.
In Stewart’s place, Daily Show correspondent John Oliver will sit at the desk of the series which tapes and airs original episodes Monday through Thursday.
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Stewart is taking the break to make his feature directorial debut with Rosewater. An adaptation of the 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, Stewart also wrote the screenplay.
OddLot Entertainment and will produce and finance the feature, with Stewart, Gigi Pritzker and Scott Rudin also producing. Eli Bush will executive producer.
Bahari’s book tells the story of his 2009 arrest by the Iranian government while covering an election protest. He was subsequently interrogated and tortured over the next 118 days.
Taking over the broadcast from Craig Kilborn in 1999, Stewart’s Daily Show has long been the flagship property of Comedy Central. His work on the show and spinoff The Colbert Report has earned him dozens of Emmy nominations, and last year he accepted his tenth consecutive win for best variety series.
Prior to joining The Daily Show, Stewart had a career as an actor with roles in films such as Big Daddy, Playing by Heart, The Faculty and Half Baked.
Stewart is repped by UTA.
Email: Michael.OConnell@THR.com; Twitter: @MikeyLikesTV
