MTV (those lucky bastards) got a chance to visit the set of The Host

, Stephenie Meyer’s latest movie adaptation which was largely shot in the New Mexico desert with director Andrew Niccol (In Time, The Truman Show) at the helm.

Josh Horowitz got to check out some cool caves and sat down with Saoirse Ronan (who plays Melanie) and her love interest Jared, played by Jeremy Irons’ hunky son Max Irons, to talk stunts and love.

The Host is set in a world where Earth has been taken over by an invading alien species called Souls. Melanie Stryder is among the few remaining free humans, most of whom have taken refuge inside a network of secret caves. But when a Soul called Wanderer sets up camp inside her body, Melanie refuses to relinquish control of her mind to Wanderer and the two are forced to coexist and become unwilling allies on a mission to track down Melanie’s one true love.

Author Stephenie Meyer, who was a fixture on all the Twilight movie sets, is a close collaborator on The Host as well. In the clip below, Meyer explained why Saoirse Ronan absolutely had to be cast as Melanie/Wanderer, even though she was younger than what the author initially had in mind. Once Ronan was on board, the challenge was to cast male leads who could hold their own with her on screen:

Meyer who has remained extremely gracious throughout her phenomenal rise to fame also described the experience of seeing the caves in real life: ‘It was kind of like someone built something out of your imagination just for you, and you get to hang out in there’:

The Host hits theaters March 29, 2013. Diane Kruger, Jake Abel and William Hurt costar.