A couple of months ago it was revealed that Jon Stewart was taking 12-week break from The Daily Show, so that he can make his feature-film directorial debut with Rosewater. Now he’s signed his first star, as TheWrap reports that Gael García Bernal has signed up to take the lead role.
Stewart also wrote the screenplay, which is adapted from Maziar Bahari’s 2011 book Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity and Survival. The book recounts the author/journalist’s time in Iran, where he was supposed to go for one week to cover the country’s national elections. Instead, he was held in an Iranian prison for 118 days, tortured and interrogated by a mysterious man who the writer described as smelling of rosewater.
Gael García Bernal will play the reporter, who left his pregnant fiancée behind in London for what he thought was a routine assignment. Shooting is scheduled to begin later this summer.