The HostThe Twilight Saga may be wrapping up this year with the final instalment released in November, but Stephenie Meyer’s work will be back on the big screen next year with Andrew Niccol’s adaptation of The Host.

Starring Saoirse Ronan as the young lead, the sci-fi thriller had its first trailer debut back in March, and now two new images of Ronan and co-star Jake Abel have surfaced online.

“Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that takes over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. Wanderer, the invading ‘soul’ who has been given Melanie’s body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Melanie fills Wanderer’s thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves – Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body’s desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she’s never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.”

Max Irons completes the young leading trio, with Diane Kruger, William Hurt, and Chandler Canterbury supporting them, and Niccol directing from his own script.

Niccol is coming off the back of the Justin Timberlake-starrer, In Time, which turned its $40m. budget into more than $170m. at the international box office, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he’ll bring with The Host.

Meyer has also said that she’s considered turning the novel into the first in a trilogy, so we could well see this become both a novel and film franchise in years to come.

The Host will be released on 29th March, 2013 in the UK and US. As things stand, that will see it going up against the newly-revised release of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which could make for a competitive box office that weekend. You can be sure the ad campaigns for both films will be heating up later this year. As usual with the new images below, you can click to enlarge.

 

Source: via IMDb.