Entertaiment Weekly was another one of those news outlets that had some exclusive time on the set of The Host before they finished filming. Here we have a first look at Jack Abel as Ian O’Shea - who of course falls for the alien Wanderer who is inside of Melanie (who of course loves Jared). Nice and complicated, right? EW has a great interview with Jack as he talks about working with Stephenie Meyer and the film’s director, Andrew Niccol. Read more below:

It’s kind of like a love quadrangle.

Yeah, a love box [laughing], between my feelings for Wanda, the alien inside the body, and Jared’s feelings for Melanie, the human who he’s known, whom Ian has never known. Ian has only known this alien.

What is that like to play? I know that’s tricky for Saoirse, but you’re dealing with essentially two different characters.

I was really lucky. It was much easier for me than for Max and Saoirse, because my scenes with Saoirse were mostly with her as Wanda. So the physicality we created for both of us was just that: For me, that entity was just Wanda. Andrew Niccol and I [discussed] that Ian was much more evolved than most people in the cave, second to Jeb. His biggest muscles were his heart and his brain. He’s able to understand that yes, Jared may love the human, but he hates the alien. [Ian] has grown to understand [the alien], and through understanding, grown to love her.

I know Stephenie Meyer was on the set a fair amount. What was that like, knowing that you were interpreting something that had lived in her head for so long?

The thing about Stephenie is that she’s highly collaborative. If you have ideas — and we had ideas about the sequels [to the book] — she was like, “Tell me! Tell me!” There were a couple of times I was like, “How ’bout this?” And she was like, “Well, I’ll think about it.” And that’s always so relieving as an actor, because we all want to bring something to the table, and we all understand that the film we’re making is the writer’s baby. There’s parts of you that want to honor their vision. There’s parts of you that have your own vision. And she welcomes that process with open arms. I got her blessing early on with what I was wanting to do with him, and because of that I was able to not think about it so much. She’s kind of the ghost on set anyway. Unless you go find her and have a conversation, she’s not coming up to you to give you notes or change your performance. She’s really, really great about that.

See the full interview at EW.com here.

I love Ian O’Shea!

What do you think of this look at Jack as Ian?

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We have some exciting news for all fans of The Host today. There has just been a never-before-seen introduction to the book released with an extended excerpt in the book. Just in time, to keep us excited about the story while we wait for the movie to get into post-production. Check out the new introduction below:

THE HOST is a riveting story about the survival of love and the human spirit in a time of war. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact. Most of humanity has succumbed.

The highly anticipated film is based on the best-selling novel THE HOST by famed author of THE TWILIGHT SAGA, Stephenie Meyer. THE HOST stars SAOIRSE RONAN (Hanna, The Lovely Bones, Atonement, upcoming Byzantium), JAKE ABEL (Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightening Thief, I Am Number Four, The Lovely Bones, upcoming Percy Jackson And The Olympians: Sea of Monsters), MAX IRONS (Red Riding Hood, Dorian Gray, upcoming Vivaldi), WILLIAM HURT (Into The Wild, A History Of Violence, The Incredible Hulk) and DIANE KRUGER (Inglourious Basterds, National Treasure, Unknown).

THE HOST arrives in theaters everywhere March 29, 2013!

You can also read at Scribd here.

What do you think of the new introduction?

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Cinema Blend has put together a summer reading list for all of you movie buffs out there that need some summer reading. The list contains all books that have upcoming films being adapted from them, and the reasons why you need to read the book before you see the movie. Check out their thoughts on Stephenie Meyer’s, The Host, below:

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Status: Set for release March 29, 2024

Who’s involved: Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, Max Irons and Jake Abel (starring), Andrew Niccol (directing/screenplay)

Why you should read the book first: The Host is set in a world that’s been inhabited by aliens - or rather, the people have been inhabited by aliens called souls. The story begins with the capture of human Melanie Stryder, a young woman whose body is soon taken over by a Soul called Wanderer, an alien with a fair amount of experience in inhabiting other life-forms. But she soon learns that Melanie’s mind is a challenge to overcome, as Melanie refuses to abandon it. It’s a bit more mainstream and female-focused than most science fiction literature probably is, but to dismiss the book as “Twilight with aliens” would be an unfair generalization. Not only does The Host prove to be an interesting story, but it also explores humanity from an outside perspective and should make for a great movie, especially with the exceptionally talented Saoirse Ronan in the lead.

Go read the full list at Cinema Blend here.

Thanks Noor!

I also highly recommend The Hobbit!

What do you think of Cinema Blend’s summer reading list? Are there any books you plan to read?

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In yet one more set of interviews from MTV’s trip to the set of The Host, we have a little more from Stephenie Meyer - this time with a more Twilight vibe. In these two videos, Stephenie talks first about the future of any more Twilight stories before admitting that it is weird to be on set without having Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson there. Check out the interviews below:

Is There More ‘Twilight’ In The Future For Stephenie Meyer?

Stephenie Meyer Misses Rob And Kristen On Set

Aww, I bet it would be weird to not have Kristen and Rob on set after filming 5 movies together!

It sounds like we won’t be getting any Twilight any time soon from Stephenie, but at least it sounds like we’ll be getting more from The Host. What do you think, are people getting sick of vampires?

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MTV really was the lucky dog of the journalist world to get exclusive time not just on the set of The Host, but some pretty lengthy one-on-one time with author, Stephnie Meyer as well. In this series of interviews we get to hear from Stephenie about why she realized they had to cast Saoirse Ronan as the lead, the “enourmous” cave that The Host is filmed in, and why she can’t write while she’s working on movie sets. Check out all of the interviews below:

Stephenie Meyer Refused to Pass Up Saoirse Ronan in The Host

The Cave Set on The Host Was “Enormous”

Stephenie Meyer Can’t Write During Filming

The Cast of The Host

Speaking to the film’s romance, Irons admitted that he enjoyed the struggle Jared has in wanting to be close to Melanie, but knowing in the back of his mind that he can’t. We watched Ronan and Irons film one of their more emotionally charged scenes that involved Jared trying not to kiss Melanie.

“Jared’s struggle is when Melanie returns, she was the love of his life and he lost her, but then she walks back into his life,” Irons explained. “He wants to hold her, but the rational part of his mind is saying she needs to be killed.”

From the looks of things on set, this big-screen adaptation has major potential to strike a chord among Meyer’s dedicated fanbase. The author told us that she’s enjoyed her involvement in the production and that being on the cave sets was particularly magical for her.

“It was so awesome. The cave set was enormous, it was vast, they’re just so cool, so much fun to walk on,” Meyer enthused. “It was kind of like someone built something out of your imagination just for you.”

See more at MTV including more from the cast of The Host here.

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EW.com was one of the news outlets lucky enough to visit the set of The Host. Here they give us a little sneak peek of the experience they had, and promise that there is much more to come. Read more below:

An hour outside of Albuquerque, N.M., on the rocky edge of a small, picturesque canyon, Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) is squinting into the sun. She’s flanked by two sleek, silver sports cars, and her eyes are ringed with an eerie, iridescent circle. They’re both signs that Kruger is playing The Seeker — a dogged member of the police force of an alien species called Souls, who have successfully invaded our planet by literally invading our bodies. She’s looking for Wanderer (Hanna‘s Saoirse Ronan, pictured with costar Max Irons), a member of her race who, aptly, has wandered off into the desert after the consciousness of her human host, Melanie, cajoled Wanderer into finding what’s left of Melanie’s human family. The Seeker is also keenly set on finding this rag-tag cluster of the remains of humanity, but for very different reasons. “We find her,” Kruger (as The Seeker) mutters to herself, “we find the threat.”

Fans of Stephenie Meyer’s 600-plus-page novel have likely already gathered from the description above that film interpretation of The Seeker is almost the exact opposite of how she’s described in the book. Instead of small, dark-haired, and clad mostly in black, the very blonde Kruger stands regally on some serious wedge heels, dressed in a futuristic cream-colored pant suit. It’s a change designed by writer-director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, In Time) to reflect the “purity” of the egalitarian Souls, and Meyer told me on the set that she happily embraced it. Gattaca is her favorite sci-fi film of all time.

Thanks Noor!

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E! Online has put together a nice short little list of the top five things you need to know right now about the movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host. Check them out below:

4. The Book’s as Big as Twilight: True, The Host has hardly garnered as much buzz as the Twilight juggernaut, but the novel itself is churning out equally impressive Twi-esque stats. It spent 26 weeks as No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list and also spent more than 36 weeks on the Los Angeles Times best-seller list. Forget Fifty Shades of Grey! Apparently The Host is the book to read. And lucky for you loyal S.M. fans, Ms. Meyer said she wants to turn the story into a trilogy. Shocker.

5. The Film’s Following in Twilight’s Footsteps: Turns out Baton Rouge has gotten a double dose of Stephenie Meyer—much of The Host’s filming took place where Breaking Dawn was first filmed. A few other on-set deets? Stephen Rider (who plays Seeker Reed in the flick) recently tweeted they have “all” read the book and said he sees Stephenie on set “almost every day.” Rider also dished that the “cast is stellar” and it’s “truly an amazing experience.” What? No Twilight-style drama? Oh well, at least there’s one more Breaking Dawn film to keep that goss coming.

Thanks Noor!

What do you think of E! Online’s list?

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