Jon Stewart started in the entertainment industry as a stand-up comedian, but over the years he has really become much more than that. As the host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, he has long had a platform for not only up-to-the-minute biting social satire, but also for being the one who watches the watchers - becoming a trusted name in news broadcasting and one of the strongest critics of the endless 24-hour news cycle. Stewart has already accomplished an incredible amount during his career, but this year he is ready to add one more credit to his resume: director.
Above, thanks to Apple, you'll find the first trailer for Rosewater, a film based on the book by and true story of journalist Maziar Bahari, which has been adapted for the big screen by Stewart as his directorial debut. In the movie, Gael García Bernal plays Bahari, who was in Iran during the presidential elections of 2009 covering for Newsweek Magazine. When protests broke out over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reported victory before the polls had even closed, Bahari filmed the events and sent footage to the BBC. This, for what should be fairly obvious reasons, didn't make the Iranian Police too happy. Bahari was arrested and spent 118 days being tortured and interrogated by a mysterious man identified as Rosewater, who constantly accused his prisoner of being a spy working against Iran (the nickname came from the interrogator's fragrance, which Bahari identified as rosewater) . The writer's memoir, "Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival," was co-written with Aimee Molloy and was first published in 2011.
Jon Stewart's connection to Bahari's story and Rosewater is an interesting one, as The Daily Show wound up playing an unfortunately big part of his time in prison. During his time in Iran, the journalist did an interview with Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones, and that same interview was used by the Iranian police as possible evidence that Bhari was a spy. You can watch an extended interview between Bahari and Stewart below, the clip first airing back in November of 2009:
Jon Stewart took an extended hiatus from The Daily Show to make Rosewater and now, before hitting theaters, courtesy of Open Road Films, Rosewater will be spending some time on the festival circuit. The movie will be part of both the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, which I'm sure is a tactic to try and stir up some potential early Oscar buzz. Assuming you can't get tickets to either of those events, you'll be able to see the film for yourself in theaters on November 7th.
