Adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's 'The Host' casts Saoirse Ronan

(AFP PHOTO/STR)

Saoirse Ronan ( Hanna, The Lovely Bones) has signed on to star in The Host, the adaptation of the best-selling sci-fi novel by Twilight Saga author Stephenie Meyer.

The screenplay is by Andrew Niccol, who also wrote The Truman Show and directed Gattaca. Selected by Meyer, he may also direct the film, according to Deadline Hollywood. He is currently shooting Now with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried.

Ronan, who also starred in Atonement, has signed on to play Melanie Stryder, one of the remaining human survivors fighting an alien species called Souls, which invade bodies to eliminate their personalities.

Melanie is captured by the aliens and implanted with Wanderer, whose goal is to give up other humans, but Melanie will not surrender her consciousness. Ronan may play the roles of Stryder and Wanderer.

As the Twilight production winds down and the end of the series draws closer (at the end of 2012), Meyer has finally entertained the possibility of selling the rights to this novel.

RC