Big news dropped back in March when hit Comedy Central late night talk show host Jon Stewart announced that he would be taking a hiatus 12-week hiatus from his Daily Show duties to make his directorial debut with a feature called Rosewater, based on BBC journalist Mazir Bahari’s book Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity and Survival. While production hasn't started up yet, it is starting to put pieces together, and today we've learned that its found a lead actor.
Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican actor best known for his performances in films like Amores Perros, The Motorcycle Diaries and Y Tu Mama Tambien, has signed a deal to star in Stewart's Rosewater, according to The Wrap. In the movie Bernal will star as Bahari, a journalist who travels from his home in London to Iran so that he can cover the presidential elections. Instead he ended up getting arrested and spending 118 days in prison where he was interrogated regularly. The title comes from the fact that Bahari remembers that his interrogator smelled like rosewater.
The source notes that while Stewart is away "reporter" Jon Oliver will be taking over hosting duties for The Daily Show. He will be on for eight weeks of Stewart's 12-week hiatus.
Bernal was recently featured in the Chilean true-life political thriller No. In addition to recently signing on to the new drama Evita, he is also attached to play the title role in Zorro Reborn (though there has been little movement on that in the last year).
