Constantin Film ‘strongly believes’ in ‘The Mortal Instruments’ franchise
After The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Constantin Film plans on restarting production on The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes in 2014, Variety published an article with more details from executive producer Martin Moszkowicz and how Constantin “strongly believes” in the franchise.
One of those details is that Harald Zwart, who directed City of Bones, isn’t a lock to return for City of Ashes. Constantin is looking at him and other suitors to direct the sequel.
“We are talking to him and others. At the moment there is no director attached,” Moszkowicz said. ”It also depends on his professional availability of course.”
Moszkowicz revealed that Constantin is working hard to determine what went wrong and that they’re working on the script and elements of the film before determining a budget.
”We are analyzing exactly what went wrong, and that needs some time. We’ll go back to the drawing board, and we’ll work on the screenplay; we’ll work on the elements of the movie; and then we’ll budget it.”
Like stated in THR’s report, a change in the marketing strategy is in the works. Moszkowicz said that they will move forward when they feel like they will get it right.
“Maybe we have targeted too young an audience,” he said. “They are very outspoken, especially in the social media world; they are extremely active. But the readers of the books are from 14 to 34 — that’s the main age group — and maybe some of them had issues with how it was marketed. We need to go behind that, and find out exactly what it was.
“It is an ongoing discussion that we are having, and it is not done. We haven’t made a final decision. But we will only move forward — and we plan to move forward — when we feel we are going to get it right,” Moszkowicz said.
Although it is quite likely that City of Ashes will film next year, nothing is ever set in stone in Hollywood. But the plan is to begin shooting sometime next year, although there is no start date yet.
“That is the plan, but it is not a given,” Moszkowicz said. “We believe in that franchise, and we would like to do that, but we need to get it right.”
TMI Source 
NOOOOOOOO
next YEAR?!?!?
this saddens me.
me to
but i will be worth the wait next year when the movie is awsome 😀
yeah me too. At least we know IT IS going to HAPPEN IN 2014.
“Have a little faith!”
l loved the movie and I read the books. It is going to be hard to wait a year. But i am so so so excited
Looks like they have a lot of work to do, I’d suggest a different scriptwriter as some parts in CoB seemed forced. And never ever put cheesy tween music in important scenes!
Too true!
Amen!
agreed they need to put in more funny bits in!
They need to put in more dialogue actually. All City of Bones amounted to was Lily Collins acting her butt off while running and trying to juggle key plot points while pretending that Simon isn’t hotter than Jace. Although don’t get me wrong while Jamie Campbell Bower’s voice is sex, they didn’t exactly make him more desirable than Simon, which is immediately wrong because Simon is actually quite annoying in the book.
Ask the fans, we can tell you what went wrong !!!!! We love the books, so get a screenwriter that loves the books also. Leave the cast alone !
Don’t pull a Percy Jackson where they changed almost the whole cast. :0
I would actually like it if they did.
Amen Debra!
I love the whole cast so don’t change please!
I agree with almost everything you said, I still don’t understand why the changes were made from the book usually its to made the plot more concise what the script did was the absolute opposite. But with regards to the cast it was almost perfect just please get a new Magnus. Yes he might look good but Magnus has so much depth we need someone that can portray that depth.
Please i loved the cast dont change it
Despite being a awesome movie it had glitches….one of them was music. The score was really good and I loved it, but music from pop artists was well…..not for TMI.
Also change the director, I guess he’s ok but not for this type of movie.
🙂
They should have more indie artists like they did with most of the twilight films
I tell you what: change the director, don’t put any cheesy scenes in the next movie, give us more character developement (especially the relationship between Jace/Valetine – Clave/Valentine and his followers), better dialogs and you’ll do fine. It can only get better (i hope so…)
So agree with this …
They need some really cute parts for jace and clary
Im glad that they plan to make City of Ashes, although I am a little disappointed on the length of the wait. I just hope that it will be really good!
I’ll admit I am a bit sad that Harold won’t direct bc I thought very well with the actors and was very interactive with. The fanbase. But I want to say right now that words cannot describe how really happy I feel today I am ever so grateful that we have a studio that cares do much and thinks very highly in the fanbase and have been so gracious and sincere it’s this kind of gesture the u really don’t see very often unlike othe studios that are so obsessed with making money off of popular franchises sorry if I sound harsh but that disturbs me a bit and how Hollywood has become such a greedy industry and people who have do much more integrity and talent as artists get overlook and it’s all about being a household name and drawing obscene attention to the public. As I remember back in August when Martin said in the variety Article when he mentioned resident evil and said that even though those movies wee not super popular or made a lot of money they still did them anyway and appreciated the quality it had as a film and that it still has people who appreciate it. I really think we should all be very grateful to have a studio who cares about this franchise bc I think if it went to someone else they would have abandoned it but no they believe in the mortal instruments and we should continue to do the same. And yes we defiantly need all the help and feedback we can for our beautiful COA it’s for the better and in the long run it will make a differance. We can do this guys. No matter how long it will take we will be right here :’) I love you all. 🙂 ok I’m gonna shut up now
Totally agree! Maybe time is all they are really going to need to bring this franchise success and an even greater fanbase, if it’s done right!
**SPOILERS**
Yay we get to see the movie virsion of COA.I want to see the part where Clary blows the ship up with one of the runes she creates. I can’t wait to see her create the fearless rune .
me TOOOO 😀 😀
me 3
I so want to see that too!..I still wondering how they are going to even start CoA. They total messed up with Clary ending up with the cup.And Hodge totally ruined the whole brother/sister suspense by giving Valentine the idea.I know we who have read the books already knew it was a lie but those who haven’t but see the movie are suppose to be fooled by Valentine telling Clary and Jace that,it sets up their relationship for 2 books.And they need to give Jace some more humorous lines so he can sound like Jace.
Jamie did a great job playing Jace, but the script made him way to dark ! Jace is suppose to funny and sarcastic, not morose.
That is true debra jace is suppose to be funny
Yeah. I love the green house scene but i absolutely hate the music they used in the movie. Jace and Clary are so cute together.
Jace and clary are so so cute together
Harold Swart is a great director in the way that he listens to the actors suggestions, but don’t blame him if the screenplay wasn’t good. It was the script writers that made the movie so much different than the book. I’d say that the merchandise for the movie was outstandingly done but there was not enough commercials and web advertisements to set this movie up for success on the big screen. You also can’t ignore that the movie, in America, was released on a Wednesday, but was originally supposed to be released on a Friday, poor decision to change it. But I believe that the production crew, employees, and workers should really listen to the fans first and foremost. But the movie deserves a 5 out of 5 star review if the viewer watching the movie hasn’t read books.
I will be sad if Harald Zwart doesn’t direct COA. He has such a great enthusiasm for the books and the film. I think he gave it 100%. But a movie is a collaborative process, so if you think firing him will make the next movie a success, I believe you are mistaken. Let him finish what he’s started. Besides changes in marketing, promotion, better timing on release date, start with a more experienced screenwriter. Personally, I was happy with 90 percent of City of Bones, and I think Jessica Postigo did a wonderful job for a new screenwriter. But with the books being so huge and detailed, go with someone else this time.
I have to admit Harald Zwart made those actors capable of doing their own stunts. It was fantastic. Totally impressed with JCB and that front flip with no stunt double or CGI! The first trailer was fantastic.
I am really happy that they took the time to notice how they went wrong and I hope that they make it so much better than the first one! Not that the first one was bad! 😉 I can’t wait for more TMI in movie form next year! 🙂
Can’t wait see how this will turn out! The first movie was spectacular! 🙂
I totally agree they should have used beth crowleys “warrior”!
Yes to Warrior. No to Zwart, he was useless. The screenwriter was a joke. Did she READ the books ? Not all of the fans are tweens, no respect for us older fans. It didn’t make any money because Mommy and Daddy wouldn’t take the tennie boopers to the theather
for city of ashes to be really successful, definitely improve the marketing for the movie, but also change the director, screenwriter, and the people in charge of the sound track, alot of why city of bones was a laughingstock was because was the teenybopper feel to it and random, cringe-worthy pop music put on blast did absolutely nothing to help
Yes, do agree
You know now that some if you are mentioning music I was thinking that maybe for the soundtrack the music superviser should be Alexandra patsavas who did the soundtrack for the twilight films and catching fire bc she had a mixture if both music that had a mainstream feel (ex. Paramore green day (twilight) cold play( catching fire) but at the same time if you noticed he majority if artists were indie rock bands and indie pop musicians and the feel to their music often had something edgy but yet catchy at the same time they were often very accurate to the scenes and the mood of the music and what the characters felt and being that city of ashes is going to b a more intense story the music needs to have a much more edgy and raw and have the right rhythm to fit the emotions if the characters. It sounds a bit of a mouthful and yet I don’t study music but u think something like this could be used in the movie once it finally starts although I did like the composer he did a very decent job with city if bones but the soundtrack needs a different “tune” ( no pun intended)
Yay! And it appears they may have a different director! And marketing g will be better!revise start date will help move things along
I did like Harold though
Just let one of us direct the movie
Hopefully they ditch the whole “better than the hunger games” thing and the “next phenomenon” . TMI needs to stand on its on and not be sold as some knock off of The Hunger Games or Twilight.
Nothing is ever going to duplicate or should be a carbon copy if another franchise because it’s such a lazy assumption and I want to pull my hair out every time some moron brings it up bc it’s pointless and immature people need to grow up
Yeah, but the producers of TMI are just as guilty of such comparisons through their marketing and on the DVD cover it literally says ‘more exciting than the Hunger Games’.
Furthermore, in all honesty there would be no TMI movie without those movies first doing so well at the box office.
So, I agree its annoying, but not exactly unwarranted.
Reblogged this on shadowhunter715.
I think that the movie just needs a new scriptwriter. The actors were honestly not able to act to their full potential. If you watch any other works with them in it, their acting is honestly spot on, but in the movie, it felt slightly forced and cheesy at times.
Also, the movie felt like it was just character dialogue and then lengthy action scenes.
Possibly improve character design? Valentine was a bit awkward; dreadlocks and a typical baddie personality, instead of being a suave villain. Jace could’ve used some more humorous lines. The Shadowhunter’s gear wasn’t what I though it would be; it was basically just black clothes. The only thing that looked somewhat like actual “gear” was Alec’s vest.
Adding too many Clace moments…
Clace is great, just…
Make the movie about the other relationships as well.
(Ex. Hotel Dumort after scene: They stumble onto the roof after being chased by vampires, trip, TENSION and stare into each others eyes for a million years. Not exactly original or realistic.
Soundtrack/score was a little typical. The score was very ominous music, but it wasn’t memorable at all. Just ominous-sounding music.
Maybe add some alternaltive music instead of pop (and change the way pop music is played loudly in the movie), ex. The Catching Fire soundtrack is already hyped by most, with lots of popular alternaltive artists like Coldplay and Lorde.
I could go on for a bit, but those are my main hopes that will be resolved in COA.
I still enjoyed COB as a fan, but to elevate the experience…some suggestions. uwu
I agree about the music. Jamie said he suggested alternative artists but they didn’t use any of them. I bet all the people they used were under the Sony umbrella.
As for too much Clace, that’s City of Bones and also what we were all waiting for! The expansion of relationships doesn’t really start until CofA. The first book is expository.
Thank You someone understands what it is, that is exactly how it should be.
I have to say that i love the work on the espcial effects and all that, thae attack a the institute, teh demons and all that stuff, but what bothered me was the fact that they changed a lot of things, that made it feel rush and like a mess, like in one moment we are at Magnu`s party and then we are in the church looking for weapons, they could develop things a litle bit more and cut out parts that were completely unnecesary, im for one hated the Piano playing scene where Jace played a song from Bash something….
On the subject of music I agree that they should’ve gotten a different artist to do the song for the greenhouse scene. But in case anyone wants a fan opinion I think they should check out The Birthday Massacre, some of their songs I could see fitting the vibe of TMI being both dark and humorous. If you haven’t heard of them check them out I’m sure you won’t be disappointed! 🙂
Just look at some of the music on Jamie’s playlists!
I know its hard to keep to a book when you have to have it all in 2 hours, but you need to stick to the story line. if you change stuff now it screws it up for the future.
Actually, I’m 12 :))
Barf me !
Actually wait for more confirmation AFTER 1-2 months of when DVD/Blu-Ray/download sales come out. This smells of a desperate PR attempt. Here’s what Moscowicz told Variety:
Although the intention is to shoot the film sometime next year, it is not carved in stone.
“That is the plan, but it is not a given,” Moszkowicz said. “We believe in that franchise, and we would like to do that, but we need to get it right.”
It’s one thing to LIKE the director, it’s another to respect his work. Harald wasn’t a director he was a friend to the cast. No regard for the product.
So, when I found out CoA was continuing with production, I was happy for the franchise and all that, and don’t get me wrong, I still will see the movie because I love the books to much not to, but after the first movie, I’m just not that excited. I liked the movie, but I didn’t think it was great. It felt sloppy to me. I thought the cast was amazing, I just think some scenes could’ve been done a lot better.
Just get a knew and more experienced screen writer.
Well, since everybody here is giving opinions on what Constantin should do diferently in CoA id they want it to succeed, I’ll give mine too.
1. Definitely let Jessica Postigo go. She seems to be a fan of the books and a very nice person, but the story was scraped bare in CoB, much of essential stuff was taken out. She is not the one for this job.
2. Age up the soundtrack, please no more cheesy songs for the kissing scenes, let the composer cook up something beautiful and meaningful. I liked all the composed score in CoB, but if you want to crank it up a nodge, how about Hans Zimmer, Alexander Desplat, Howard Shore, Claus Badelt or Clint Mansell – they can work miracles! Music is a very powerful tool if you use it right. As for the songs for the movie I’d say more alternative, electronic music, some male vocal wouldn’t hurt either.
3. Less action, more talking. Let the great cast you found show their full potential, give them words to reveal and explain their characters.
4. Do yourself a favor and drop comparisons with Twilight and other franchises!
5. If you have to cut something out so badly, cut the jokes, not the key story lines and dialogues. Clare’s humor is nice, but it’s not the main reason people like her books so much, it’s the story first and foremost. PLEASE, no more stuff like “they weren’t cops”, the golden retriever, 2 bad guys deciding who goes up and who down the stairs, Clary and Simon at the poetry reading, Simon drawing horns and a mustache on Jace’s picture – I can’t belive all this stuff made it into the film and the essential exposition was cut so short it lost almost all original meaning. 3-4 most funny and memorable jokes are enough for the movie, don’t overdo it, it’s not a comedy after all.
6. Make Valentine more relatable and interesting. He wasn’t just a villain, he was considered a visionary, a great leader, an idol by so many in the book. Show that and the second movie is going to be much better than CoB already.
7. The props were great, keep working with the guys who made them. But some work can be done on the shadowhunter gear. It just looks too much like ordinary clothes, only the colour black isn’t enough to make it gear. Alec’s west was more like what it schould be. And Isabelle’s clothes: come on, she is supposed to be this femme fatale, gothic queen, get her some mini dresses, boots, red lipstick and some push up in her bra, she is supposed to be much prettier than Clary! And please no braids in Valentine’s hair, it looks rediculous!
And if you Constantin people are reading this after all, thank you very much for not giving up on TMI! make another movie and make it right, we can wait if the result is worth it.
You know, the changes made to CoB never really bothered me, because I got why they made them, and I didn’t think they altered too much that couldn’t be fixed later.
Still… this is the time to stick to the book, and go as dark and deep as TMI really is. People will be less forgiving of inaccuracies in this second film.
Plus… CoA is really where TMI gets good, so they should stick to the major plot points/other interactions and not get hung up on Clace (and this is coming from the biggest Clace shipper ever, who liked the focus on them in the CoB movie, as it explained their feelings for each other/made you root for them, unlike what happened with Bella and Edward in Twilight…).
And you know… somewhat off topic, I don’t get why people think so many people think the CoB movie focused on Clace too much. Honestly, the first book did that as well, and it wasn’t until CoA that things started getting plot heavy.
Anyway, back on topic: I really like Harald and will be sad to see him go. Honestly, I think he made a great movie for us, and I admire how much he loves the series/wanted to stay true to it for us. (I also like how he has stories for his fight scenes), but if they think it would be best to let him go, I guess I can’t really argue. I mean, I know very little about the film industry. I just hope this doesn’t start the Twilight trend, though, where we get a different director for each one, who doesn’t always know their stuff. That made the movies and characters seem really disjointed and out of context with each other, and a lot of important things were dropped, because one director would forget something, and the next wouldn’t even think to include said fact. Yeah…
And this is also sort of off topic, but I’m sort of getting annoyed by people hating on the TMI movie, by saying HP stayed “so” true to their books. I mean, there’s no denying Harry Potter has some of the best adaptations I’ve seen, and they stayed true to it for the MOST part, but at the same time… have the people that are saying this seen the same movies I have?
I mean, TPoA cut down Remus’ story so it barely even made sense, they added a ton of H/Hr stuff that never happened, H/G was non-existent, Ron was barely even a character until the last movie and Hermione stole some of his moments, the stuff with Winky the House Elf and S.P.E.W. never happened, we have no battle at Hogwarts in THP, Lupin/Tonks and Bill/Fleur are barely in it and downplayed, we never even meet Charlie, Dumbledore doesn’t give Harry Voldermort’s history like he should have, there’s no story about Arianna, they make James seem like a complete jerk and Snape a saint, and Snape’s death is in some random boathouse instead of the Shrieking Shack, they don’t have Kreacher’s story, or when the golden trio and Ginny find the Horcrux unknowingly at the beginning of TOotP… I could go on and on really.
…Sorry for getting off topic. And believe it or not, I LOVE the HP movies and these things don’t really bother me; I’m just making this list because I think people are being too hard on TMI, and not holding HP to the changes it did, in fact, make. Yeah…
No you were very spot on in fact I’m glad you bought it up and the same can be said to a lot of othe adaptations that had their “mistakes”
I agree. Lord of the rings movies made huge changes to the book and there are still book purists who are not happy about Gimly being too funny and Elves at Helm’s Deep, Frodo being too young in the movie, an so on, but nobody argues that the movies are great. So it’s ok for a movie to be different from the book, you just have to keep the essence of the plot line and the characters in. And it’s not an obstacle for action in the film: LotR had a lot of action in it, but they had enough exposition stuff for non-readers to understand this world and characters in it. If TMI has to borrow from another franchise’s experience, let it be LotR. I’d even say get Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens to write the script! The plot exposition and dialogue should be a priority, action scenes should remain an addition, not the center of the film.
Wasn’t one of the producers or executive producers in charge if lord if the rings if I’m not mistaken
I loved the film and so did a lot of other people that I know that had seen it but I did see some flaws, both in the film creation and promotion, so I’m glad that they believe in it to make it better the second time around. A lot of franchises get better with time (I mean, c’mon, look how much more amazing Catching Fire looks than THG!) so I have faith that they can figure it out and get it right next time. I think the wait will be worth it but hopefully it all works out, especially with the actors because I loved the casting (except I do think Godfrey’s English acting could have been better, no offense to him). We’re very lucky as a fandom to have a studio that is willing to work on it to please us and make not only a better film worthy of this amazing series, but also a better adaption. We’re also very lucky to have a studio that is listening to us and our criticism and opinions to make it more enjoyable for us. Very few in Hollywood do and that is what I was hoping they would do so I’m exceptionally pleased. I think this is a good sign and I’m excited 🙂
But it is important as a fandom for us to continue to support the first film and spread the word about it so that it can form even a bigger following to start getting CoA a better outcome. That’s all we can do at this point and it’s really not that hard to do so just everyone keep that in mind. I’m hoping they put CoB on Netflix or something because that can really help out and more people would watch it (it has affected many other films in this circumstance positively in the past as more people are able to and willing to watch it than if they don’t have to go out and do anything to see it, which is unfortunately lazy but often true). So just keep all that in mind until filming starts back up! Just because it’s not being released yet doesn’t mean we have to wait to help it out and make it better than CoB. They deserve a bigger following and more viewers and we can make that happen.
OHMYGOD.
NOTHING WENT WRONG WITH THE FIRST FILM. IT’S JUST THAT THERE ARE MUNADNES. -.-
I’M SO FREAKING EXCITED , THIS SERIES IS MY LIFE AND I CAN’T DESCRIBE MY FEELS. *sCrEAMING*
I will cry if nothing goes wrong ^_^
If there is no second movie my heart will slowly break in two. I must must have Jamie and Lily on the big screen again as Jace and Clary! THE MOVIE WAS AWESOME THE BOOKS ARE TOO!!! YOU CAN”T GO WRONG WITH ANOTHER MOVIE!
You guys want to know why this movie was a flop? First of all, Jamie Campbell Bower doesn’t look, or act like Ace. He spoke in a monotone the whole movie, and isn’t even the slightest bit attractive!
Second, the score wasn’t very good. The soundtrack wasn’t really good. Don’t put music in if you don’t need it!! We really didn’t need Demi Lovato surging in during the Greenhouse Scene. Third, the writing was terrible. Jace didn’t have many humorous lines, and they didn’t include many lines from the book. Fourth, it was confusing. They didn’t explain silent brothers, runes, steles, or anything!! I saw it with a friend who hadn’t read the books, and she said: “So they draw on themselves, and get magical powers? What??” Fifth, the fight scenes were way to long. You could have cut out 20 minutes of unnecessary fighting and explained all the things you didn’t explain!! Sixth (and last, because I know I’m going on and on) YOU GOT SO MANY DETAILS WRONG!!! The institute was NOT built around the portal, the whole portal scene with Jace and Clary was stupid, The battle was not fought in the Institute, and all those Birds at the end?? WHAT?!?! I know I’m being really negative, but I was super excited for this movie, because this is my favorite book in the whole wide world, and I was REALLY DISAPPOINTED!! Please listen to these suggestions and make City of Ashes worthy of the book. Thanks.
PLEASE MAKE IT FAITHFUL TO THE BOOK! And please remove the unnecessary cheesy background music… let it be classical or gothic… but please don’t make it pop. T___T
I’m sad that it take so long to do the sequel.
I read all the books and even the 3 prelude and I can wait to get and read the last book in 2014.
I do believe that the problem with the movie is you need two good main actors and handsome ….I ‘m sorry to say that the actor playing ” Jace ”
was not a good choice . Too skinny and bof.
Maybe the actor that did “I am number 4″ even if is too old to play the ” Jace Part “would have been MUCH better.
I think it issue was clearly the deviation from the book. There is a huge audience but they all love the sorce material not the crap script. Casting was strong except for the changes to Valentine. Stay closer to the book and you will have a winner.
I know away to fix the ending as clary hides the card one of the crows sees and takes it Valentine., and uses the mage to take it out and uses to unleash the demon