Tackling Teen Angst

New Zealand director Andrew Niccol’s film The Host is one of several films to be released over the next three months targeting “voracious” teen movie goers. In his quest to adapt Stephenie Meyer’s lesser known yet still bestselling novel The Host, Niccol was tasked with creating a believable love-triangle-turned-love-rectangle when his protagonist played by Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) is invaded by an alien being, nicknamed Wanda, who falls in love with a different boy from the one the host character Melanie loves. Niccol’s previous work has included such sci-fi films as Gattaca and last year’s Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried vehicle In Time. “I think that’s great for teenage girls who are starting to think romantically about the choices they have. The complexity of that is enticing,” he said. The Host is out in the United States on 29 March.