Sierra/Affinity will handle international sales on “Rosewater,” the directorial debut of “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, the financing, production and foreign sales company announced on Wednesday. Sierra/Affinity will begin to talk with buyers at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
In order to make the movie, Stewart is taking a hiatus from hosting his popular late-night show, a satire of the day’s news and inane media coverage. The comedian will produce the film with Scott Rudin and OddLot Entertainment founder Gigi Pritzker.
Stewart also wrote the script, adapting BBC journalist Maziar Bahari’s best-selling memoir “Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love.” Bahari and Aimee Molloy tell the account of Bahari’s 118 days imprisoned in Iran.
Stewart interviewed Bahari in 2009, which interrogators then used as evidence that Maziar was working with Western spies. He continued to cover the story, inviting Bahari on after he was released.
