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Looks like Jon Stewart will have the summer off from "The Daily Show." The Comedy Central host will make his directorial debut instead.

Website Deadline New York reported that Stewart will take about 12 weeks off this summer to direct his first feature, "Rosewater," about Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari's harrowing ordeal of spending 118 days in Iran's most notorious prison. Bahari was brutally interrogated by a man he knew by one thing only - he smelled of rose water.

According to Deadline, Stewart wrote the script, which is based on the 2011 best-selling book "Then They Came For Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival," in which Bahari details leaving his pregnant fiance behind in June 2009 to cover Iran's presidential elections for Newsweek, only to be accused of spying and held captive for several months.

Though Stewart has appeared in numerous films and hosted the Oscars in 2008, "Rosewater" will be the first feature he has written and directed.

A comedian who regularly takes on political issues on his show, Stewart also had a personal stake in Bahari's story. An appearance the journalist made on "The Daily Show" was used against him as proof that he was a spy.

While Stewart is away, "Daily Show" regular John Oliver will be filling in as a guest host for eight weeks.