Stephenie Meyer’s ‘The Host’ adaptation to star Saoirse Ronan

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Cue the Twihard furies to defend their righteous Queen of Love Triangles, or at least, so the hopeful filmmakers behind the adaptation of The Host would have you believe. It’s a question of whether Meyers’ fans will flock to see any movie based upon her novels as they have done (to the tune of worldwide) for her previous de minimus efforts, but a few producers and a screenwriter certainly believe that the audience is there for The Host, which is a sci-fi novel embedded with Meyers’ never-to-be-abandoned love triangle formula. Now, get ready to weep, for the actress that has been newly confirmed for the lead role is none other than the Oscar-nominated Saoirse Ronan:

Saoirse Ronan has been set to star in The Host, the screen adaptation of the bestselling novel by Twilight Saga author Stephenie Meyer. Scripted by Andrew Niccol, the film figures to be one of the hot titles when Inferno launches sales at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival next week. Niccol, who was originally set to direct, might resurface as the filmmaker.

Ronan, the Oscar-nominated star of Atonement, The Lovely Bones and most recently Hanna, will play Melanie Stryder, one of the last humans putting up a fight against an alien species called Souls. These parasites invade human bodies, fuse to each person’s consciousness and systematically erase their personalities. Melanie is captured by the aliens and implanted by a Soul called Wanderer, something of a legend because of all of the “hosts” she has attached to on numerous planets. Wanderer’s goal is to get Melanie to give up the remaining pockets of humans, but instead the alien finds Melanie to be unique in her unwillingness to surrender her consciousness. Wanderer is so overwhelmed by Melanie’s memories and feelings, the alien is driven to reconnect with Melanie’s old life.

The concept is more of a visual challenge than Meyer’s Twilight Saga books, but one thing they plan is for Ronan to play both Melanie and Wanderer. Meyer’s book has an enormous fan base, and the author had long resisted offers to sell it. She finally made a deal two years ago with producers Nick Wechsler and Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz, who’d done the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road together. They deliberately developed the script outside the studio system, and invited the author to be very hands on in the adaptation. Meyer was involved down to choosing Niccol because she was such a fan of his films Gattaca and his script for The Truman Show.

[From Deadline]

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that, after reading The Host, I found that it was indeed rather mindless but not on such a grand scale as any of the Twilight Saga books. However, Ronan is obviously much better than this movie deserves, so in one respect, it’s almost maddening to think of Ronan wasting her talent upon bringing yet another silly Stephenie Meyers story to life on the big screen. Still, I do think it’s permissible for an indie queen to occasionally throw in her chips, say “F&#$ it,” and just go for the money grab for once. After all, we don’t have to worry about this movie going franchise or anything … yet.

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Photos courtesy of Fame Pictures

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22 Responses to “Stephenie Meyer’s ‘The Host’ adaptation to star Saoirse Ronan”

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  1. Amy says:

    I saw this on IMDB and did a double take. I read all the Twilight books and was slightly obsessed… then I left the books aside for awhile and reread them and was like “What was I thinking?! These books are so poorly written! What?!” I have a lot of issues with Meyers’s writing style.

    However I absolutely love The Host. Again it is plagued with run on sentences and repetitiveness and certain scenes just dragged on forever. But the story is way more original than Twilight and I always tell people to skip Twilight and read The Host instead.

    The only thing I’ve seen Saoirse in is City of Ember which I just happened to catch on tv randomly. She is a decent actress but I always imagined the Melanie/Wanderer character to be older, like early twenties (though maybe she is only seventeen like in the book, I forget, it’s been awhile). Also I just imagined her as a kick ass tough girl with a strong attitude… Saoirse seems more like this delicate flowery person.

  2. Solveig says:

    Eh, she’s too good for a movie like that. But probably I’m having a bias towards Meyer’s writing skills and imagination. I’ve never read The Host, so I’d better shut up… the plot sounds unoriginal, tho.
    Saoirse is almost unrecognizable in those pictures, at first I thought she was Jennnifer Something, the Oscar nominee for Winter’s Bone.

  3. mia girl says:

    I love this girl and good for her for getting a high profile gig.

    As far how the movie might be, well this makes me skeptical: “and invited the author to be very hands on in the adaptation. Meyer was involved down to choosing Niccol…”

    Many believe that it is Meyer’s strong influence in the Twilight movies that make them so damned corny. She apparently rejected many attempts to adapt her books into better screenplays / things that make sense for the film.

  4. Abby says:

    NOOOOO. my little atonement friend, NOOOO. This is a waste. Dakota Fanning has been a wasted talent in Twilight. NO!

  5. EbonyShiksa says:

    I love her, really. I do. But she was not how I pictured Melanie/Wanderer 🙁

    I was picturing someone along the likes of Sophia Bush.

  6. lucy2 says:

    She’s a good actress, but I don’t think I want to see or read anything else by SM.

  7. amanda says:

    I really love this girl. I saw “Hanna” last week and I saw “The Way Back” the other night. She’s too good. If anything will sell me on seeing something Stephanie Meyer-related, it’ll be casting SR.

  8. Franny says:

    I loved the host…afterwards I tried to read the twilight series hoping it would be as good…i was obviously disappointed

  9. Nikki says:

    Korean movie “The Host” by director Bong Joon-ho….A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

  10. danielle says:

    really liked the Host, and like this actress. So hopefully the movie will be much better than the Twilight movies…

  11. ceenitall says:

    I read the first Twilight book and thought it was awful, really who wants a boyfriend that is hard to the touch and sparkles in the sun???? But then I read The Host and even thought it wasn’t the best written book I did like it, very much. I hope the movie is better written and works out.

  12. the original bellaluna says:

    @ Amy – You MUST see Atonement. It’s wonderful. And seeing Hanna should eliminate your image of her as “delicate/flowery.”

  13. aenflex says:

    This girl is special. Beautiful and wonderful. Love her!

  14. Newbie says:

    I like this chick. IMO, she’s going places.

  15. sisi says:

    High five Nikki! I really liked that movie, it was so weird and freaky.

  16. jaye E says:

    I actually read “The Host” before the Twilight books and really liked it. I liked it so much that I was surprised how bad the Twilight series was. I think Ronan is a fantastic actress and I think she has the potential to bring depth to the character provided the screenplay is good.

  17. Lindy says:

    Saw Ronan in Hanna just a few weeks ago and was blown away. Totally amazed–this girl is the Real Thing.

    So hearing that she will be involved with some sort of Stephanie Whatsername dreck breaks my heart. I HATE Twilight. Hate fails to express my feeling. On so many levels, for so many reasons. Those books are toxic.

    Please say it ain’t so Saoirse!

  18. Emma says:

    Still, she’s a little frail looking for the character. I know she’s badass in Hanna, but her figure and her features are quite delicate… not at all like Melanie is described in the book. But whatever. I didn’t really like the book and I probably won’t see the movie so it doesn’t exactly matter what I think, now does it?

  19. Stephanie says:

    Pretty girl!!

  20. Kimberly says:

    They won’t. From what I know from the kids I’ve talked to is that after they all read those dumb twilight books they read all the other series of those type of books and from what my sister says, “Stephanie Meyers books are Stupid, with a capital S!” and this was from a girl that waited for hours to see the 2nd movie. So if she’s not on board with S. Meyers, being her target audience and all I believe that this new one will bomb.

    Oh and my sister is making me add that she tried to read the host and it is just dumb and boring so no one waste their time.

  21. Zoya says:

    Did this child get her honker done recently??? why does she look like Nicole Kidman all of a sudden? her nose looks so narrow and angular in recent pics… I swear it used to be allot wider.

    • Hammy says:

      @ Zoya: Are you talking about the pictures the article gives or others like the Hanna NYC premiere pics?