Jon Stewart Show Larry Wilmore The 'Senior Black Correspondent' To Replace Colbert; ‘Rosewater’ To Be Stewart’s Directorial Debut Starring Gael García Bernal

Jon Stewart's The Daily Show's Larry Wilmore, the 'Senior Black Correspondent' has been given his own program titled 'The Minority Report with Larry Wilmore' to replace Stephen Colbert's show. Meanwhile, Stewart will be busy as his directorial debut, 'Rosewater' based on the book 'Then They Came for Me' has been picked up.

Open Road has picked up the U.S. distribution rights to 'Rosewater,' the political drama that marks the directorial debut of Jon Stewart according to the Hollywood Reporter. A fall release is being planned.

Jon Stewart's film stars Gael Garcia Bernal and is an adaptation of the New York Times best-selling memoir 'Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival,' written by BBC journalist Maziar Bahari, whom Bernal will play in the movie, and Aimee Molloy.

The film is about a Tehran-born Canadian journalist who was covering the Iranian elections in 2009. After submitting footage of street riots, Bahari is arrested by Revolutionary Guard police, and for the next 118 days was interrogated and tortured by man he called Rosewater, a nickname given due to the man's scent. Stewart was one of those who followed the story. In fact, Bahari's imprisonment is connected to an interview he conducted on The Daily Show in 2009; the authorities presented the interview as evidence that he was in communication with an American spy.

Due to the content of the film, Stewart has been accused by Iran's State TV of being funded by Zionists and working with the CIA, according to the Washington Times.

Jon Stewart commented the the book to Maziar Bahari during an interview, "Your ability to connect the story to your family, and the nuances you pick up, even from your captor, is incredible."

Rosewater was filmed in June and July of 2013 and was directed and written by Jon Stewart. J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Cloverfield) provided some scripting assistance for Stewart in writing Rosewater.