I've been very curious about Jon Stewart's “Rosewater” since the material and the story seized him so much that he took a hiatus from “The Daily Show” to go make the movie. And now at least we know when we can expect Open Road Films to release it: Nov. 7, right in the thick of awards season.
An adaptation of BBC journalist Maziar Bahari's book “Then They Came For Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival,” the film has been a passion project for Stewart ever since he and his team covered Bahari's story in 2009. At the time, Bahari was arrested by Revolutionary Guard police led by a man known only as “Rosewater” for submitting camera footage of the street riots that ensued following incumbent Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial election victory over challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi. He was tortured and interrogated for the next 118 days and after his ordeal, appeared on “The Daily Show,” one of the outlets that kept the story alive as the story played out.
Gael García Bernal plays Bahari in the film. Shohreh Aghdashloo stars as his mother and Kim Bodnia will play the eponymous Rosewater.
It's highly likely this film turns up at Telluride en route to Toronto. When it was announced as a Toronto selection, it was tellingly labeled a “Canadian premiere.” So that guessing game is becoming more and more easier to suss out as of late.
Open Road also has Dan Gilroy's “Nightcrawler” to play with this season, an intriguing-looking thriller with Jake Gyllenhaal in the leading role. So they have an interesting little one-two punch on the way with that and “Rosewater.”
Look for “Rosewater” in theaters on Nov. 7.