Comedian Jon Stewart will take the summer off from his duties hosting The Daily Show while me makes his directorial debut.

The Comedy Central host announced on Tuesday that he will reportedly take around 12 weeks off to direct his first film Rosewater, according to Deadline. The film's script was written by Stewart and adapted from the 2011 best-selling book Then They Came For Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival.

The plot is centered on Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, author of the book, and his distressing ordeal of 118 days spent in Iran's most notorious prison. The title of the film comes from Bahari telling stories of how he was brutally interrogated by a man he knew only by the smell of rose water.

The book details Bahari's life after having left his pregnant fiancé behind in June 2009 to report on Iran's presidential elections for Newsweek, which led to an accusation of spying and detention for several months.

Stewart was quoted by The New York Times about the reason behind backing the project.

"I really connected to Maziar's story," he said. "It's a personal story but one with universal appeal about what it means to be free."

Stewart also has a connection with Bahari's story after an appearance the journalist made on The Daily Show was used by the Iranian government as supposed proof against him that he was a spy.

The political atmosphere of the film should not be too much of a challenge for the 50-year-old comedic host, who regularly discusses tough social issues on his show.

Daily Show regular John Oliver will fill in as a guest host for eight weeks on the comedy central program, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Stewart has appeared in numerous films such as Death to Smoochy and Big Daddy. He also was the host of the Oscars on two occasions in 2006 and 2008.

Tags: jon stewart the Daily Show john oliver