Jon Stewart to take a three-month hiatus from “The Daily Show” to direct his 1st film

JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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“Daily Show” fans will be shocked to hear that veteran host Jon Stewart will be taking a three-month hiatus from the show come this summer to direct a movie — and it’s not a comedy. Deadline is reporting that Stewart will take 12 weeks off to direct “Rosewater,” a film for which he already wrote the screenplay, adapted from the 2011 memoir “Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity and Survival.” The drama marks Stewart’s first foray into directing.

“Then They Came For Me” is BBC journalist Maziar Bahari’s harrowing account of what was supposed to be a week-long trip to cover Iran’s presidential elections. Instead, Bahari’s visit extended to 118 days, during which time he was trapped in an Iranian prison, interrogated by a man he could only identify by the smell of rosewater.

Stewart has a personal connection to the film: Bahari had performed in a “Daily Show” sketch several years ago, which Iranian authorities used as footage against him, accusing him of “plotting to stage a revolution against the government,” according to the New York Times

“You can imagine how upset we were,” Stewart told the Times over telephone, “and I struck up a friendship with him afterwards.”

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/jon_stewart_to_take_a_three_month_hiatus_from_the_daily_show_to_direct_his_first_film/

It will be weird without Jon there, but I think John Oliver filling in is inspired. I think he'll be very good. I suppose they could have had guest hosts doing a week or two at a time, but it wouldn't necessarily have worked that well.
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  • OpEdOpEd Posts: 579
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    Definitely interesting. 3 months he figures, huh?

    Thanks for the news. (I can't even be bear to watch TDS to get my news and pop, so I ~rely on things like this.)
  • VerenceVerence Posts: 104,577
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    http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/jon_stewart_to_take_a_three_month_hiatus_from_the_daily_show_to_direct_his_first_film/

    It will be weird without Jon there, but I think John Oliver filling in is inspired. I think he'll be very good. I suppose they could have had guest hosts doing a week or two at a time, but it wouldn't necessarily have worked that well.

    It would have depended who the guest hosts were. I suppose they could have had the various Daily Show "correspondents" doing a couple of weeks each
  • NoEntry2kNoEntry2k Posts: 14,969
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    I think John Oliver is a good choice for ‘stand in’. But as with all the correspondents he sort of plays a character, where as Jon Stewart as host doesn’t, so it’ll be interesting to see if he hosts as a character (like Colbert) or hosts as himself.

    I read an article somewhere praising Jon Stewart’s confidence too, because most TV hosts would be too insecure to take such a sabbatical from their own programme, and it also praised his allowing of a guest host as many would have insisted upon reruns in their absence.

    I wonder if it’ll actually be renamed to ‘The Daily Show with John Oliver’ for the 3 months…
  • JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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    NoEntry2k wrote: »
    I wonder if it’ll actually be renamed to ‘The Daily Show with John Oliver’ for the 3 months…

    I suspect it probably will actually. Good point about the characters though - I could certainly see Oliver playing a rather OTT version of the typical englishman I suppose.
  • VerenceVerence Posts: 104,577
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    If John Oliver has to take a day off will they get Patrick Stewart to replace him like they did in that sketch a few months back
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,488
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    I think John Oliver's a good choice for his replacement. I'm also quite interested in seeing Jon Stewart's directorial début...

    Part of me wonders whether Comedy Central are lining up a John Oliver spin-off (like Colbert Report)
  • JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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    Verence wrote: »
    If John Oliver has to take a day off will they get Patrick Stewart to replace him like they did in that sketch a few months back

    That would be genius :)
  • Big Boy BarryBig Boy Barry Posts: 35,293
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    If John Oliver gets his own spin-off it should be a parody of Louis Theroux's documentaries

    The gag will be that instead of expressing quiet revulsion at the neo-Nazis, extreme religious nuts, meth addicts etc.....that he meets, John Oliver will agree with them all.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,488
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    If John Oliver gets his own spin-off it should be a parody of Louis Theroux's documentaries

    The gag will be that instead of expressing quiet revulsion at the neo-Nazis, extreme religious nuts, meth addicts etc.....that he meets, John Oliver will agree with them all.

    But that wouldn't be remotely funny...

    Especially to people who don't get the gag. The Colbert Report is still funny, if you don't know what/who Colbert is parodying...
  • BosoxBosox Posts: 14,172
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    Stewart is taking 12 weeks out but it's only 8 weeks of shows he'll miss as the Daily Show has 4 weeks off in that period.

    Hopefully this isn't the beginning of the end for Stewart but obviously he won't want to do the show forever.
  • JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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    Bosox wrote: »
    Stewart is taking 12 weeks out but it's only 8 weeks of shows he'll miss as the Daily Show has 4 weeks off in that period.

    Hopefully this isn't the beginning of the end for Stewart but obviously he won't want to do the show forever.

    Maybe that's why they chose that specific time period then. I know he's been doing it for a good 10 years so, as you say, it probably won't go on forever.

    I suppose if his film is successful, he'll arguably want to make another one as well so these breaks might be more frequent and he might ultimately have to choose one or the other.
  • VerenceVerence Posts: 104,577
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    But that wouldn't be remotely funny...

    Especially to people who don't get the gag. The Colbert Report is still funny, if you don't know what/who Colbert is parodying...

    Speaking of which, has The Colbert Report ever been shown over here??
  • blueisthecolourblueisthecolour Posts: 20,123
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    I wonder if Jon will be a guest on his own show to plug his film? :-)
  • OpEdOpEd Posts: 579
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    Especially to people who don't get the gag. The Colbert Report is still funny, if you don't know what/who Colbert is parodying...

    Well you have to understand "what" (those that don't understand... are the "what", btw ;) ), if not maybe exactly "who".
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,488
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    OpEd wrote: »
    Well you have to understand "what" (those that don't understand... are the "what", btw ;) ), if not maybe exactly "who".

    Not necessarily, a lot of his comments are funny even if you've never seen Fox News
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,488
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    Verence wrote: »
    Speaking of which, has The Colbert Report ever been shown over here??

    It was shown on FX, but the daily compliance was far too much work for the small ratings they were getting and they dropped it
  • JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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    Anyone watch John Oliver's first show?

    He was very good!
  • DejaVoodooDejaVoodoo Posts: 5,764
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    I thought he did well. Clearly, he was slightly off when interviewing, but he was very good at everything else.
  • GulftasticGulftastic Posts: 127,193
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    He did a good job. I enjoyed the bit with the other reporters complaining.
  • JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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    Gulftastic wrote: »
    He did a good job. I enjoyed the bit with the other reporters complaining.

    I loved that - especially when Jason Jones started his piece and you slowly started to realise what he was actually on about.

    I think the more relaxed he gets, the better he'll be - he's got plenty of time I suppose. Could even potentially land his own show as a result as well.
  • VerenceVerence Posts: 104,577
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    I loved that - especially when Jason Jones started his piece and you slowly started to realise what he was actually on about.

    I think the more relaxed he gets, the better he'll be - he's got plenty of time I suppose. Could even potentially land his own show as a result as well.

    I can't help wondering if deep down Jason is genuinely a bit annoyed that John Oliver got the gig
  • JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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    Verence wrote: »
    I can't help wondering if deep down Jason is genuinely a bit annoyed that John Oliver got the gig

    I suppose you say the same about all of them - they've been there a lot longer than John Oliver has. I suppose it would have been interesting to give each correspondent a week or two each to host - I'd personally like to see Aasif Mandvi at the desk.
  • GulftasticGulftastic Posts: 127,193
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    Sam Bee would be my choice.
  • VerenceVerence Posts: 104,577
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    I suppose you say the same about all of them - they've been there a lot longer than John Oliver has. I suppose it would have been interesting to give each correspondent a week or two each to host - I'd personally like to see Aasif Mandvi at the desk.

    Only Sam and Jason have been there longer than him

    Aasif, Al and Jessica started after him , although in Aasif's case only by a month and Al and Jessica are relative newbies having started in 2011 (Al) and 2012 (Jessica) respectively.

    As for each of the correspondents having a go I suggested that back in post #3 :)
  • JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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    Verence wrote: »
    Only Sam and Jason have been there longer than him

    Aasif, Al and Jessica started after him , although in Aasif's case only by a month and Al and Jessica are relative newbies having started in 2011 (Al) and 2012 (Jessica) respectively.

    As for each of the correspondents having a go I suggested that back in post #3 :)

    Yeah, fair point - I probably wasn't paying a lot of attention :)
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