We are happy to announce our very first giveaway at The Host Movie News.  We are giving away five (5) copies of The Host novel by Stephenie Meyer to five (5) lucky winners!

If you have not read the fantastic novel that the upcoming The Host movie is based on, here is your chance to get a copy of novel for yourself.  The book is a great summer read for those of you who are out of school or getting ready for a vacation.

Synopsis: “THE HOST is an enchanting and fateful story about the survival of love and the human spirit in a time of war. Our world is 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 movie version of the novel is due in theatres March 29, 2013.  The film is written and directed by Andrew Niccol.  The Host stars Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, William Hurt, Diane Kruger, Frances Fisher, Chandler Canterbury, Boyd Holbrook, and Scott Lawrence.

Like the official Facebook page and follow the official Twitter account for the movie.

The giveaway closes on June 8, 2012 at 12 PM CST.  Winners will be notified after that date.

Rules and Regulations:  **The giveaway is only open to those residing in the USA.**  Only one entry per person.  Multiple submissions will disqualify you from winning.  All fields in the contact form are required for you to win.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Saoirse Ronan is back in her native Ireland and her blond hair color.  She was in Dublin, Ireland for the photo gallery opening of Barry McCall.  Saoirse Ronan has a photo in the gallery and is in McCall’s new photography book, Pho20graphy.  She gave an interview to Irish entertainment news, XPose, about The Host.  She talks about her birthday on the set, the stunts (sounds like some good car crashes), and her expectations in regards to being compared to Kristen Stewart and the Twilight phenomenon.

Source: TV3/XPose, Image: Barry McCall

The Independent talked with Saoirse Ronan (Melanie/Wanderer) about what her future in film holds and how she celebrated her 18th birthday, which we know she was on the set of ‘The Host’ for. She recognizes that most of the films that will be sent her way from now on are going to involve romance, but she reported that she cares more about the story and characters. I think that shows a level of maturity most girls her age do not. She talked about the success of ‘Hanna’ and about the hopes for the success of ‘The Host’.

She also talked about her 18th birthday. She said that she wished she had been at home, though she had celebrated two other birthdays while on set before. To her surprise, she said it ended up being the best birthday she has had so far. She said she got to watch a car stunt being filmed, which she described as ‘amazing’, as well as be serenaded by a local band and enjoy a cake they had brought her. Both Max and Jake were able to be there and celebrate with her, as well.

Happy belated Birthday, girl I’m glad it was special for you!

Source

Saoirse Ronan celebrated her birthday last month while filming ‘The Host’. Now that she has finished filming, she is home in Ireland and was able to make an appearance at the Coca-Cola Cinemagic film and television festival in Dublin today. Some of the young filmmakers there presented Ronan with a birthday cake, which reportedly made her smile. I think that was a very sweet gesture.

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While I love IMDB for a quick reference, it is not always the best resource to see who is playing who in a movie, especially when the film is shrouded in secrecy.  The people who are making The Host are not really forthcoming about a full cast list.  While this is frustrating to someone like me who runs a site based on news, it is also cool as a fan of the book since not everything is getting spoiled for us all at once.

I will immediately update this post if any of this information is incorrect.  This is all coming from IMDB.  The descriptions of the characters are all from The Host Wiki.  The character descriptions do contain spoilers if you have not read the book.

Fords Deep Water – Marcus Lyle Brown

“Fords Deep Waters is a soul and the Healer who inserts Wanderer into Melanie Stryder’s body. His assistant isDarren.  Despite the natural good nature of souls, he has difficulty getting along with The Seeker due to her abrasive personality. ”

Brandt – Mustafa Harris

“Brandt is one of the humans who live in the caves found by Jeb. He is described as not being very big, but very solid (most likely meaning muscular).

He was shot by Wanderer’s Seeker, fortunately for him the bullet just missed his heart and lungs. Doc used Heal, a soul made medicine for human bodies, to heal the bullet wound in Brand’s shoulder. When the Seeker is brought back to the caves, Brandt is one of the men who gaurds her, along with Aaron.”

Wes – Shawn Carter Peterson

“Wes is one of the human rebels hidding in Jeb Stryder’s caves. He came from Eureka, Montana. When Wanda first came to the caves, he was not openly hostile to her, yet he wasn’t friendly either. However, over time, Wes became one of the first, along with Ian O’Shea, Lily, Walter and Jamie Stryder, to overcome his hatred of souls and slowly became Wanda’s friend.

While the humans were waiting for Jared and Jamie to return from a raid, Wes and Lily played a friendly football game against Wanda and Ian. Just after the game, Wes admitted that he was in love with Lily. Despite being older than him, Lily reciprocated his feelings. The two became the happy couple of the Caves. However, their happiness did not last long. A Seeker, who had been hunting the last remnants of human resistance, found the caves and killed Wes. Lily and Wanda were both destroyed by his death.

After burying him next to Walter’s tomb, Wanda revealed her greatest secret: how to remove a soul from its host’s body without killing either of them. When Wanda had Doc promise to remove her from Melanie’s body, she insisted to be buried next to Wes and Walter.”

Lily – Raeden Greer - I have seen Raeden and Frances Fisher tweet each other back and forth while they were filming so I am pretty confident that this is correct.

“Lily is a member of the group of humans living in the caves. She is tall, athletic, and has caramel colored skin. She is one of the first humans to show kindness and acceptance toWanderer. She has long been admired by Wes, who is younger than she is. Eventually they begin a relationship and are very happy together.

However, their happiness does not last long because The Seeker kills Wes by shooting him in the head. Due to this type of injury and instant death, Doc is unable to use ‘Heal’ on him (a medicine developed by souls to heal all ailments). Lily goes into a deep depression over the loss of her loved one.”

Frances Fisher gave an interview through Skype with Aaron Stipkovich of StipkoLive.com and ANDMagazine.com.  She discussed many things in the almost half an hour interview.  She discusses the development of her character, Maggie, from The Host beginning at about the three minute mark.  She also talks about working with Andrew Niccol, both as a writer and a director.  Frances Fisher is very much a veteran actor and this comes through while she talks about her craft.  The interview was filmed while the cast was still filming in Louisiana.  I think this is the first interview that we have seen or read with any of the cast during or since filming wrapped.

Sources: The Host Movie Fans, AND Magazine

Jake Abel who plays Ian O’Shea in The Host has sent us fans on a treasure hunt.  Jake signed a copy of The Host and tweeted a picture of the book and the location of the bookstore.  If you are in Burbank, California, you should see if it is still in the stacks.  Jake also asked for the finder to “twitpic that jam” to him.  Good Luck!  Let us know if you find the book!

I have to say our cast members are starting to look pretty awesome compared to Twilight‘s.  I don’t see Robert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart doing such a cool thing like this.  I might be biased, though.

Follow Jake Abel on Twitter.  He just got a verified account.

According to the New Mexico State Film Office, filming on The Host will be wrapping up this week.  They filmed for three weeks in Alburqueque, Farmington, Shiprock, and Bernalillo.  This means that The Host is basically done filming, but you never know if they will be doing some CGI and special effects work.  After that comes a lot of editing and all that post-production entails.

Can’t wait to see what Andrew Niccol has done with this film.

Source: The Republic, Santa Fe New Mexican

While this is not The Host related, Saoirse Ronan is keeping herself busy by adding more film projects to her resume.  She just turned 18 a couple weeks ago, so she is now considered an adult in the US.  She will have less restrictions in regards to how many hours she can work a day and she does not have to go to school.

Darren Aronofsky has had a film project called Noah on his plate for a while.  Cast members are only now being announced.  Saoirse Ronan will join Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly in the film about the Bible character, Noah.  It has a proposed release date of March 2014 with a $125 million budget.  There is no mention of the character that Saoirse will play.

Congratulations to Ms. Ronan for landing this part, and one year after The Host is out, we will be seeing her in Noah.  I hope she is leaving room to star in sequels to The Host, that is if the film does well at the box office.

Source: CinemaBlend

CinemaCon is going on right now in Las Vegas.  It is a convention for theatre owners to see what the movie studios will have to offer in the coming year.  Collider has a writer there, and he spotted a banner for The Host.  It is like the teaser poster, just rearranged to be on large, long rectangular banner.  If you are curious how studios promote their films, check out the whole post on Collider, which features a lot of posters and promotional setups for upcoming films.

Source: Collider, The Host Movie Fans