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From Deadline:

Stewart has written the script, and will direct Rosewater, an adaptation of the book Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story Of Love, Captivity And Survival. Published in 2011 by Random House, the book is Maziar Bahari’s harrowing ordeal of leaving London in June 2009 to cover Iran’s presidential elections. With a pregnant fiance left behind, the BBC journalist expected to be away for a week. Instead, he spent the next 118 days in Iran’s most notorious prison being brutally interrogated by a man he knew only by one thing: he smelled of Rosewater. Bahari wrote the book with Aimee Molloy. Scott Rudin will produce with Stewart and Gigi Pritzker. Pritzker’s OddLot Entertainment is financing the film.

Daily Show fans should take solace in the fact that John Oliver will take over hosting duties for eight weeks this summer in Stewart’s stead. So stay strong. You can handle four weeks of re-runs.

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During an interview with Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal, IAC head honcho Barry Diller acknowledged that his latest company is indeed an online media conglomerate. And that this same sort of structure on the Hollywood studio side has left an indelible, obvious footprint:

“One of the reasons I think movies kind of stink is because they’re now so low on the totem pole of greater corporate interests. It used to be… when I came to Fox, it was almost totally — it had maybe 20 percent of its revenue came from television — 80 percent came from film.”

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In case you hadn’t yet heard, Denby has been chastised by the film’s producer, Scott Rudin, and many media colleagues for breaking the December 13 Sony embargo on published reviews of the Fincher flick. On the very same Miami newspaper website, in fact, LA Times media critic Patrick Goldstein wonders whether the whole concept of a film review embargo is even still valid.

FishbowlLA applauds Fincher for: a) Putting this matter in the proper perspective (“tempest in a teapot…”); and, b) Saying something that we’ve always firmly believed would be far preferable for just about all concerned:

“Look, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t show movies to anybody before they were released. I wouldn’t give clips to talk shows. I would do one trailer and three television spots and let the chips fall where they may. That’s how far in the other direction I am. If I had my way, the New York Film Critics Circle would not have seen this movie [November 28] and then we would not be in this situation. I would be opening this movie on Wednesday Dec. 21 and I would have three screenings on Tuesday Dec. 20 and that would be it.

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Sturgess tells Muñoz that he never really had an interest in joining the Twitter ranks. However, he’s there now as @mrjimsturgess (that’s his profile pic, left), and it’s all thanks to an annoying impersonator:

Sturgess was forced to start tweeting only because a fan had created his own Twitter account posing as the actor. While initially the impostor seemed benign, Sturgess drew the line when the pretender began tweeting about the Twilight series and the romantic escapades of Bella and Edward.

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But from a west coast media perspective, it makes much more sense to see how the show is being advance-played in the state of its creative genesis. Salt Lake City Tribune reporter Peggy Fletcher recently shared an intriguing Q&A with Stone. The lede is pretty funny:

Matt Stone, one half the South Park writing duo, is not now, nor has he ever been a Mormon. Neither is his creative partner, Trey Parker. They don’t have Mormons in their family trees, despite rumors to the contrary circulating madly online and in Mormon circles.

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Talk about “Rashomon” revisited.

And don’t forget Martin Scorsese, who originally commissioned Mamet to write the script back in 1999 and will likely stay on as executive producer, according to Variety.

Kurosawa’s 1963 detective thriller starring Toshiro Mifune was based on the Ed McBain novel “King’s Ransom,” about a businessman who is ruined when he honorably pays ransom to kidnappers who mistakenly nabbed his driver’s son.

Several Kurosawa films have been remade by Hollywood, most notably “The Seven Samurai” (“The Magnificent Seven”) and “Rashomon” (“The Outrage”). Steven Spielberg is developing a remake of “Ikiru” at DreamWorks, possibly to direct. And the Weinstein Co. has been developing another “Seven Samurai” remake.

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Bob has long been Harvey’s surrogate for the nearly 20 years that they ran Miramax Film, cutely named after their parents Miriam and Max. They jointly ran the company, but Harvey was always front and center, most pointedly when he stormed the Oscar stage to grab the trophy in 1998′s ceremony and almost forgot Bob’s name in the thank yous.

Harvey was nowhere to be seen on Wednesday, having bowed out due to “personal reasons.”

With Harvey, that could mean anything.

By the way, that’s Bob on the left.

For more info, see below:

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Nikki claimed that the New York Post’s Page Six called her to gossip about Weinstein and his offer of a milion bucks for charity.

At issue is whether Weinstein pledged $1 million to charity if anyone can prove and produce a Rudin email about Weinstein’s alleged treatment of the late Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack’s families. Nikki says Rudin told HER Monday night that it was in fact his email and that Weinstein’s people were pestering him to deny the email and lie to Page Six. Nikki went on the up-and-up by reprinting the contretemps in her well-read blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily.

We’re still trying to figure out whether she’s getting a cut from either producer, as is their normal wont.

All of this hullabaloo was related to the Stephen Daldry-directed film, “The Reader,” which, if it ever gets out has potential for Oscars.

And since when does Page Six call other gossips for help?

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Toronto In’Panic’
A looming actors strike next summer is having an effect on the Toronto International Fim Festival, reports THR’s Gregg Goldstein. The possible strike cloud hanging over the industry’s head coupled with new distributors and few Oscar contending pics has added to the pressure at the fest, which is in a mood of “panic” according to one of his sources. Read the pre-fest recap here.

- CHRIS GARDNER

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Variety

Scott Rudin has offered one of his former development guys, Craig Perry, a first-look deal, thus gaining an opportunity to “generate mainstream comedies and family films.” Perry produced the American Pie and Final Destination movies.

Sidney Sheldon, the prolific author and producer, has died. During his extensive career he wrote several Broadway musicals, screenplays and televisions series, in addition to a multitude of novels. His television career included producer of The Patty Duke Show, I Dream of Jeannie, and Hart to Hart, in addition to a number of his novels produced as made-for TV movies including Rage of Angels, Bloodline and Memories of Midnight. His career awards included a Tony for Best Musical: Redhead in 1959, an Oscar for his original screenplay of The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer starring Cary Grant, two WGA awards for Easter Parade and Annie Get Your Gun, and an Emmy for I Dream of Jeannie.

Hollywood Reporter

Television is the new feature, according to a CBS development exec. Pilot orders are running towards nighttimee soaps and high-cncept dramas, while the networks are avoiding open-ended serials–Lost being the only hit out of the current crop. Big name directors, like Spike Lee, Brett Ratner, Guy Ritchie, and Barry Sonnenfeld are directing pilots.

The Police will perform at the Grammys in February. Sting had hinted at this during the TCAs, where he was promoting his PBS project, a collection of 16th-century classical music called Songs From the Labyrinth, as the 30th anniversary of the band was approaching. THe group will open the show on CBS.

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