Jon Stewart to Take Hiatus to Direct Movie

Will leave The Daily Show for 12 weeks

It's no joke. Jon Stewart, who's anchored Comedy Central's The Daily Show since 1999, will take a 12-week hiatus to make his feature directing debut.

Stewart's project is Rosewater, an adaptation of Maziar Bahari's memoir Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival published in 2011. It tells the story of Bahari's travels to Iran in June 2009 to cover the country's presidential elections for the BBC.