Josh Grossberg with E! Online has posted five things they have labelled as ‘creepy’ that you should know about ‘The Host’. I’m not sure what qualifies some of these as ‘creepy’, but I believe it reveals some new shots from the movie that we have not seen yet (they may be screen shots from the trailer, actually). Images and image placements are courtesy of E! Online, as well. For those of you familiar with the book or who have been following the progress of the film for some time (as we have) will not find anything surprising here.
1. Soul Survivor: Like Twilight before it, The Host boasts two young actors who ought to appeal strongly to Meyer’s massive teen fan base. Saoirse Ronan, star of Atonement, The Lovely Bones and Hanna, plays the main protagonist, Melanie Stryder, who is among a slew of humans to have their body taken over by E.T.s called Souls. Melanie ends up trapped early on inside the mind of a Soul named Wanderer, still conscious and refusing to fade away.
2. Space Invaders: Wanderer, or Wanda as she’s also known, is constantly trying to maintain control over Melanie as part of her mission to locate the last remnants of free humans on Earth. However, Wanderer soon begins seeing Melanie’s memories, and the two develop an emotional bond. Feeling sympathy for her human host, Wanderer seeks to sacrifice herself so that Melanie may live freely again.
3. Enter Team Jared: Before she was taken over, Melanie fell in love with a surviving human, Jared Howe, played by a hunky Max Irons, son of actor Jeremy Irons. By the time Wanderer encounters him, he’s bitter about what’s happened to his lover and distrusts Wanderer for what the Souls have done—until he watches Wanda comfort a dying member of his group.
4. Superhot Villain:Inglorious Basterds star Diane Kruger plays the Seeker, the head Soul responsible for finding other human survivors, including Mel’s brother and boyfriend. To do this, she fuses Wanda with Melanie—only little does the Seeker realize how close the two get.
5. Uncle Knows Best:William Hurt takes on the role of Melanie’s eccentric Uncle Jeb, who, as one of the first to suspect body snatchers among them, built a hideout in a complex of caves in the Arizona desert to help ensure humanity’s survival. When Wanderer/Melanie arrives, he doesn’t kill her because she’s his niece, and instead takes her in with the hope that she might be able to help them learn how to extract the Souls from their human hosts.
Again, though, I’m a little disappointed that we are ignoring Ian’s part in the promotion of this movie, so far. In the interview posted yesterday with Next Movie, Jake nailed it right on the head when he commented about how there is a HUGE ‘Team Ian’ following, and poor Max Irons pouted a bit when he admitted that there weren’t as many for ‘Team Jared’. The reality is, Ian and Wanda is most likely the more compelling romance in the movie. I have yet to meet anyone who thinks Wanda should be with Jared instead or who did not like the ending of the book when it comes to fixing this ‘love box’ of theirs. What do you guys think? Do you think they are going to try to focus on Jared and Melanie/Wanda more in the movie and that’s why we’re not seeing much Ian yet? Or is it maybe more about what would appeal to people who don’t know the book? I guess I’m mostly talking about the trailer and some of these interviews. Jake is being featured in other interviews and that helps, but how many people who don’t know the book are honestly going to watch these cast interviews?
