While we’ve been treated to plenty of news (and pictures) of the shoot for the last two Twilight films, the development of the other Stephenie Meyer adaptation – The Host – has been decidedly quieter. Well, now the indie pic has a director, in the shape of Susanna White.

White, who has had a varied TV directing career (she’s worked on the likes of Teachers, Bleak House, Jane Eyre and US miniseries Generation Kill), moved to the big screen with last year’s Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (released across the pond as Nanny McPhee Returns).

Published in 2008, The Host follows the takeover of Earth by an alien race known as the Souls. They’re inserted into a human body and quickly erase the original personality; Body Snatchers by another name, basically. But one woman – Mel Stryder – refuses to let her mind be taken over so easily and the Soul trying to control her, called Wanderer, realises that the two may have to co-exist as they escape to live with the human rebels holding out against the invaders, and try to figure out their new life.

Andrew Niccol, who is busy finishing shooting Justin Timberlake/Amanda Seyfried sci-fi drama Now, penned the adaptation and Chockstone Pictures is drumming up the cash to get the movie made.