Young Adult Fiction continues to drive book sales (as top writers such as Carl Hiaasen, Elizabeth George, Jody Picoult and John Grisham turn to the red hot YA business) as well as subsequent movie franchises such as Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games,” Warner Bros.’ “Harry Potter,” Summit’s “Twilight” and HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
Which helps to explain why Constantin Film and Unique Pictures’ “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones,” based on Cassandra Clare’s bestselling series set in New York City, has lured such a strong cast. Like “Hunger Games,” this contemporary story features a warrior heroine (Lily Collins), who is joined by Lena Headey, Kevin Durand, Jared Harris, Godfrey Gao, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Jemima West and Robert Maillet (their characters noted below). Jessica Postigo Paquette and I. Marlene King are adapting the script to be directed by Harald Zwart (“The Karate Kid”). The film kicks off production in Toronto this August.
Details on the books and cast members are below. The subsequent five books after “City of Bones” are “City of Ashes,” “City of Glass,” “City of Fallen Angels” and “City of Lost Souls.”
Screen Gems will release the film in the US on August 23, 2013.
About the Books:
“The Mortal Instruments” is a series of six young adult fantasy books written by Cassandra Clare and published by Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry Books. In the series’ first book, the #1 New York Times bestseller “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”, set in contemporary New York City, a seemingly ordinary teenager, Clary Fray, discovers she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. After the disappearance of her mother, Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures.
New Cast Additions:
· Lena Headey as “Jocelyn Fray” (300, DREDD, Game of Thrones,)
· Jared Harris as “Hodge Starkweather” (SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS, Mad Men)
· Godfrey Gao as “Magnus Bane” (ALL ABOUT WOMEN)
Previously Confirmed Cast:
· Lily Collins as “Clary Fray” (MIRROR MIRROR, PRIEST, THE BLIND SIDE)
· Jamie Campbell Bower as “Jace Wayland” (THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, HARRY
POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HOLLOWS, Camelot)
· Robert Sheehan as “Simon Lewis” (KILLING BONO, SEASON OF THE WITCH, Misfits)
· Jemima West as “Isabelle Lightwood” (Maison Close, The Borgias)
· Kevin Durand as “Emil Pangborn” (RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION, I AM NUMBER FOUR, Lost)
· Robert Maillet as “Samuel Blackwell” (SHERLOCK HOLMES, IMMORTALS, 300)
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