Open Road, a distribution company that was founded by theater chains AMC and Regal, has just landed a sweet deal. Right now it’s in the process of acquiring domestic distribution rights to ‘The Host,’ Stephenie Meyer’s novel. Deadline recently reported that there were at least three other distributors trying to land this deal and that the end result will be a seven-figure minimum guarantee, gross for participants that include the author along with other goodies.
There’s even some word out over the cast. It seems that Saoirse Ronan (‘City of Ember’, ‘Hanna’) is set to play Melanie Stryder, one of the last humans who are resisting an alien species called Souls. Souls are parasites that invade human bodies and do terrible damage once they enter – they basically fuse to the host’s consciousness and then erase their personalities.
At some point in the story Melanie is caught by the aliens and is subjected to implantation of a parasitic Soul named Wanderer. Of course Wanderer’s goal is to get Melanie to give up the remaining humans that are resisting the alien invasion. But the alien also finds Melanie to be unique in her refusal to yield or surrender her consciousness.
It sounds like it’ll make a very interesting movie, and seeing the success of Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ series, chances are good it’ll succeed in the box office.
We’ll bring you more information on this and other projects as the information becomes available.
