Saoirse Ronan, the 17-year-old star of director Joe Wright’s exceptional teen assassin actioner Hanna, has been cast as the lead in Inferno Entertainment’s big screen adaptation of “Twilight Saga” author Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling novel “The Host.”

The Host centers on an alien invasion of human minds. Ronan will play Melanie Stryder, a young woman whose thoughts of love make it impossible for her extraterrestrial body-snatcher to seize control of her thoughts.

Writer/director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca) penned the film’s script and is a strong contender to helm the project being that he was previously attached to do so before stepping down to direct the Amanda Seyfried/Justin Timberlake/Olivia Wilde sci-fi thriller Now.

Ronan’s creds include the 2008 sci-fi fantasy City of Ember and Peter Jackson’s 2009 adaptation of author Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones.