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The Twilight Saga is officially over — at least until Summit starts working on the inevitable reboot — but author Stephenie Meyer isn’t leaving the big screen just yet. Her first non-Twilight novel, The Host, is headed for cinemas next month, with Saoirse Ronan in the lead and Andrew Niccol at the helm.
Where the last trailer leaned heavily on the romance, no doubt in an effort to hook the same fans who turned out for Twilight, the new one aims for broader appeal by playing up the sci-fi action. Watch it after the jump.
The new story follows a young woman named Melanie (Ronan) who’s captured by invading aliens (led by Diane Kruger). They implant one of their kind in her brain, but Melanie’s spirit fights back and the two souls wrestle for control of her body. Meanwhile, because this is still a Stephenie Meyer story, she’s caught between two handsome suitors, Jared (Max Irons) and Ian (Jake Abel).
It’s a little ironic that a The Host trailer released on Valentine’s Day would emphasize action over romance, but I can’t fault Open Road for trying to broaden the film’s appeal. Twilight was a love-it-or-hate-it kind of affair, but the alien plotline in The Host theoretically has the potential to draw in folks who may have rolled their eyes at Edward and Bella’s swooning romance.
I say “theoretically,” though, because I’m not sure this trailer will do the trick. The alien stuff looks mildly cool, and I enjoy seeing Kruger in villainess mode, but it doesn’t look like anything we haven’t seen before. And regardless of how you feel about the sappy stuff, it’s a bad sign that the two male leads seem practically interchangeable. At least Jacob and Edward were easy to tell apart.
The Host opens March 29.
What if everything you love was taken from you in the blink of an eye? “The Host” is the next epic love story from the creator of the “Twilight Saga,” worldwide bestselling author, Stephenie Meyer. When an unseen enemy threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories, Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) will risk everything to protect the people she cares most about — Jared (Max Irons), Ian (Jake Abel), her brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury) and her Uncle Jeb (William Hurt) , proving that love can conquer all in a dangerous new world.
