VARIETY reports that producers Nick Wechsler, Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz have ponied up their own cash to purchase the film rights to TWILIGHT author Stephanie Meyer's THE HOST. Andrew Niccol (GATTACA) is set to write and direct.

The adult novel is set in the near future where Earthlings and kind parasites called Souls live in peace. One of the parasites named the Wanderer has combined with the dying Melanie Stryder to locate the last of surviving humans.