Saoirse Ronan has made yet another stride toward solidifying herself as one of the hottest young actresses in Hollywood.
Deadline is reporting that Ronan has nabbed the lead role in The Host, the upcoming film based on the novel of the same name by Twilight’s Stephanie Meyer. She’ll play Melanie Stryder, one of the last humans left after aliens take over human bodies and erase their personalities and souls. Melanie eventually succumbs to one of these parasitic aliens dubbed Wanderer whose intent is to force Melanie into telling them where the remaining human survivors are. Wanderer gets more than they bargained for when experiencing Melanie’s memories and feelings.
Ronan is coming off playing a young assassin in Hanna in which she practically carried the film on her shoulders. Prior to Hanna, Ronan starred in Atonement and The Lovely Bones.
The Host screenplay was written by Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show, Gattaca) who originally intended to direct as well, but aborted to take on Now with Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried and Cillian Murphy instead. Though The Host currently does not have a director or distributor, expect at least the latter to change in a potential bidding war as the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival kicks off next week.
Source: Deadline
