Jake Abel, Diane Kruger & Stephenie Meyer Talk 'The Host' with The Hollywood Reporter

The Host is Stephenie Meyer's first non-Twilight adaptation, directed by Andrew Niccol. Serving as a producer on film, Meyer faced the unique challenge of observing the film's production while simultaneously penning a sequel. "It’s really tough. I mean, it’s such a different kind of creative expenditure. When you’re working on the movies, it’s very collaborative, there’s a lot of other people involved. When you’re writing, it’s all you all the time and it is interesting to have the actors in the back of my head and think, ‘Anything that I write down, they may have to do.’ It’s a little bit more challenging to have that distraction."

Meyer on why she won't write a screenplay: "I just don’t think I can abridge. I can make it longer. I can always make things longer than I intend for them to be, but cutting things down is just brutal. It’s like cutting off your fingers every time you lose a word. I know that I can’t do that, and I’m happy to have someone come in who can be a little bit more distanced from it."

Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds, National Treasure) plays The Seeker in Meyer's sci-fi, dystopian adaptation -- about a future in which human bodies have been taken over by alien Souls -- which is planned to expand into a trilogy. "The Seeker is very interesting because on paper, she’s portrayed as the bad guy, but the judge is still out whether or not she really is the bad guy," says Kruger. "My character has more possibilities still to come [in future sequels]. Especially with the human aspect."

Jake Abel (I Am Number Four, The Lovely Bones) is at the heart of the story's love triangle as Ian O'Shea, the skeptical human who falls for a Soul called Wanderer. "I play a lot of villains, so I’ve been wanting to play someone that had something different going on and Ian was definitely that," says Abel.

Stephenie Meyer on 'The Host': Adaptation, Casting, Sequels, and More!

THR: Were you at all scared about how The Host would translate to film?

SM: So many people had a hard time with that. The only three people I think who weren’t ever worried were me, Nick Wechsler, the producer, and Andrew Niccol, the director, because we all are like, ‘No, it’s obvious, totally obvious. You just need to have the most brilliant actress in the world and you don’t have a problem.’ And we got her, so we were really lucky. Saoirse [Ronan] is amazing. When you have an actress of that caliber, especially when not everybody knows who she is yet, I think she’s going to blow people away. And then you give her this concept role, it’s like a gift. She just loves to be able to do it and watching her -- oh my gosh. There’s this one scene that has no music, it’s a close-up of her face for five minutes and you cannot look away. I mean, tears streaming down my face the first time I saw it. It was unreal.

THR: How involved have you been in the casting process?

SM: That was such a collaborative group. Nick brought me in from the very beginning. He wanted to do the movie and we got together. We kind of talked about how would you do this, and we both felt comfortable with it. Then he’s like, ‘What are your favorite science-fiction movies?’ My number one favorite science-fiction movie is Gattaca. Andrew Niccol was at the top of the list. I also really liked The Truman Show because it’s such an odd but cool concept, and Andrew wrote that originally as a thriller and not a comedy. I’d really love to see that script -- someday, I’m gonna get to read that. [Nick’s] like, ‘Well, Andrew’s fantastic’ and he’d worked with him before, and Andrew wanted to do it. He’s never done an adaptation before, so that was really cool.

THR: During your time working on The Host film, you’re also writing the sequel. How difficult was it to switch gears between working on the movie and the next book?

SM: It’s really tough. I mean, it’s such a different kind of creative expenditure. When you’re working on the movies, it’s very collaborative, there’s a lot of other people involved, and you sort of put in your two cents where you can and consult a bit. When you’re writing, it’s all you all the time and it is interesting to have the actors in the back of my head and think, ‘Anything that I write down, they may have to do.’It’s a little bit more challenging to have that distraction.

Stephenie Meyer Among Hollywood's 25 Most Powerful Authors

Stephenie Meyer

Known For: "The Twilight Saga."

Big Number: More than 63 million copies sold since 2008.

Meyer learned a very valuable lesson after reading an early script for Twilight that featured guns, nightvision goggles and speedboat chases: Set ground rules before signing away your rights. Meyer is grateful the Paramount/MTV Films project ultimately didn’t get made. When the rights reverted to her, she thought, “OK, I’m taking this home, and no one’s ever touching it again.” But a call from Summit’s Erik Feig (since named Lionsgate’s president of production) changed everything in 2007. “He said, ‘Please, we’ll do anything,’ and he let me come up with a rider where I wrote all these things they couldn’t change,” she recalls. Among the requirements: No film deaths that didn’t match the books. With The Host, set in a dystopian future where human bodies have been invaded by aliens, Meyer faces the unique challenge of penning the novel’s sequel while serving as a producer on the $44 million adaptation of the original story, directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca). Open Road Films might be hoping to achieve the same success as Summit’s $2.8 billion-grossing Twilight franchise, but Meyer’s prediction might disappoint. “I don’t expect anything to be like Twilight again,” she says. “That was such a weird experience, and to have everything be so crazy and bizarre, the fanaticism — that’s just not normal.”

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New Image of Boyd Holbrook on Set

The lovely Frances Fisher shared another picture from the set of The Host, this time giving fans a glimpse of Boyd Holbrook (Kyle O'Shea).

You can follow Fisher on Twitter @Frances_Fisher.

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Mustafa Harris Shares a Photo from the Set

Chillin on the set of #thehost. Reflecting on how far the eggy headed lil boy from Baltimore has come, and how fare must go.

Follow Mustafa Harris (Brandt) on twitter @MustafamusPrime.

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New Photo of Jake Abel & Mustafa Harris on Set

Frances Fisher shared another picture from the set of The Host with Jake Abel (Ian O'Shea) and Mustafa Harris (Brandt).

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'The Host' Display Spotted in Theaters

Large displays for The Host have been spotted in theaters! Have you caught a glimpse of a display or poster in your area?

Saoirse Ronan on Playing Melanie & Wanda

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Frances Fisher Shares a Picture of Jake Abel from the Set

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Stephenie Meyer's "Eventful" Year

"It feels like a really eventful year. A lot of really big things happened this year," Meyer told MTV News recently. "The movie coming out is a big deal."

And although we've been focused on all things "Twilight," we've also been keeping close tabs on Meyer's next book-to-movie adaptation "The Host," the filming of which Meyer said was a personal highlight for 2012.

"When we were filming 'The Host,' we had a lot of really exciting days," she recalled. "I don't know if I could pick one [favorite], but probably a day on set this spring."

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