Actor is in talks for planned movie version of The Host . . .

William Hurt (Altered States, Dark City) is in talks to join Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) and Jake Abel (Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief) in The Host, based on Twilight author Stephanie Meyer’s 2008 novel about an alien invasion.

Here’s a plot synopsis:

Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining wild humans is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading soul who has been given Melanie’s body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Hurt will play Jeb, the eccentric uncle of Saoirse Ronan’s Melanie character and a leader of the human resistance fighters.

Filming is due to start in Louisiana and New Mexico early next year.

Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Truman Show, In Time) is set to direct.

Release date is March 29th, 2013.

This is one of those projects we here SciFiMovieHype.com are really ambiguous about. Niccol is a talented director but Meyer’s source novel can only be described as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers as retold by Ned Flanders.” Maybe Niccol will hammer it into shape.