‘The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes’ production postponed
The start of production on The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes has been pushed back, executive producer Martin Moszkowicz told The Wrap.
“Constantin Film” has a long tradition of adapting books to the big screen. Pushing back the start of production of ‘City of Ashes’ was a decision we did not take lightly. But after speaking with all of our partners on the creative and distribution side, it was clear that it will be beneficial to have more time to reposition the film in the current market place,” said executive producer Martin Moszkowicz of Constantin. “‘The Mortal Instruments’ series has an incredibly loyal and ardent fan base and is a bestselling book series. While taking Cassandra Clare’s vision to the screen, we want to make sure to draw on the full potential of the franchise.”
Harald Zwart was returning to direct the movie, which was slated to start production next week.
Stars Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower and Kevin Zegers had signed on to return, while Sigourney Weaver had also been expected to join the ensemble.
The Wrap updated their article noting the reason behind the postponement, which is an unfinished screenplay. Constantin is still committed to making City of Ashes:
The decision to delay “City of Ashes” was made several days ago after Constantin spoke with its international distributors at the Toronto International Film Festival, Moszkowicz told TheWrap. While Constantin is committed to making the sequel, the company did not want to rush into production with an unfinished screenplay, preferring to take the time to get right.
It sounds like Constantin has the franchise’s best interests in mind as Martin discussed repositioning the film in its market. We support their decision as they want to do right by the franchise. The movie was slated to begin filming in two weeks. Stay tuned as more information is revealed.
UPDATE: Martin tweeted a message to the fandom reassuring the studio is working to make City of Ashes the best possible movie:
I have the utmost respect for the #tmi fandom. we want to make CoA right. we will make good use of the time.
— Martin Moszkowicz (@mmoszkowicz) September 11, 2013
#WeNeedCityOfAshes it is great how you make yourselfs heard.
— Martin Moszkowicz (@mmoszkowicz) September 11, 2013
Here is the full press release that Martin posted on his Facebook:
LOS ANGELES (September 10, 2013) – Constantin Film announced today that it has postponed the start of principal photography of THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF ASHES.
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF ASHES is the sequel of Constantin Film’s movie adaptation of THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES, the first book in the bestselling series by Cassandra Clare that has sold over 24 million copies to date.
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES opened on August 21 and has a $70M worldwide box office take after 3 weeks in release. The book series is currently #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for children series.
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES is a Constantin Film International GmbH and Unique Features (TMI) Inc.
Productions.
The push of THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF ASHES allows Constantin Film to analyze the results to date and reposition the franchise in order to maximize the results for future installments.
Said Martin Moszkowicz of Constantin Film and an executive producer on the franchise: “Constantin Film has a long tradition of adapting books to the big screen. Pushing back the start of production of CITY OF ASHES was a decision we did not take lightly. But after speaking with all of our partners on the creative and distribution side, it was clear that it will be beneficial to have more time to reposition the film in the current market place. THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS series has an incredibly loyal and ardent fan base and is a bestselling book series. While taking Cassandra Claire’s vision to the screen we want to make sure to draw on the full potential of the franchise.”
TMI Source 
I think it’s cancelled and they are just not admitting it. They’ve pushed it back indefinitely and not even given a ballpark date for production to begin. They were very foolish to greenlight a sequel before they knew how the first movie would do anyway and now it’s underperformed like all the other YA movies (minus Twilight and The Hunger Games) it makes no financial sense to make a sequel.
Lily left Toronto this afternoon so I don’t think she was there for CoA prep.
Okay, but if that is true, why would they already be working on the City of Glass screenplay? Plus, they would be letting down tons of fans and lose an entire potential audience. Just because it didn’t do as we’ll as we’d hoped doesn’t mean they won’t make any more. It was better then Eragon, for example.
ya well thats wat i think too out losin the fans… but im still a huge fan so ill wait
there wasn’t a huge fanbase for this and the box office numbers proved it.
It’s not right to make assumptions at this point
I don’t think it’s cancelled. They movie still hasn’t even premiered in a bunch of places yet, either.
she was originally there for that reason. They obviously gave her the news.
I doubt that. They said they made the decision several days ago so the decision was made last week at the latest. Why would they have her fly to Toronto for basically no reason and then give her the news? Totally wasting her time.They could just as easily given her the news over the phone or gone to her and this is the kind of thing they would need to speak to her agent/management about. Not wait for her to fly over and then give her the news. That’s not how the business works.
October was also speculation. More time could help but ill be highly dissapointed if they don’t make part 2
Yes. The bottom line is that The Mortal Instruments did not make any money for Constantin Films. They more likely lost a bundle in fact.
If it had been a moneymaker, there would be a sequel. Moneyloosing films don’t get sequels for a reason.
No I don’t think so x’D
Sorry Percy Jackson the First Movie was also not so Good and didn’t made this much of money either but still this Year we became the 2nd Movie !
Would they cancel they would tell us cause why lie to us? They are even working on “Clockwork angel” .
Wait and see I bet with you they will do City of Ashes !
@jacqueline
Percy Jackson made 226 million off a 95 mil production budget and a 30 million marketing budget. Since studios only keep 55% of gross, then for the total 125 mil cost of percy jackson one, they needed to hit 227 million worldwide to break even, which they did.
Now PJ made 38 million in DVD sales and around 50+ million total whn adding in money from merchandise/syndication rights.
So the film made about a 50 million profit.m
TMI needs to hit 220 million to break even and the way its going it won’t crack 100 million worldwide.
i think this could be the start of them not making a part 2…
Awwwwwwwwww 😦
I jinxed it I was prancing around the house “mom I’m gonna go to the set and meet robert Sheehan and have my life complete.” Oh dear…. 😦
Well just shit. Are they serious???? Why would they even greenlight the fucking thing in the first place and then postpone it indefinitely? Damn you Constantin.
I think I’m going to go cry under a table for the rest of my existence or until they start actual production.
dont cancel yall take ur time makin it but just dont cancel !!!
I am soooo disappointed! 70 million is a profit and thats not including all of the merchandise….not to mention when the DVD is released! Not happy at all! So I guess me seeing the movie 7 times didn’t help!!
Unfortunately, 70M is not a profit. The film cost 60M to make, and marketing of a film costs, generally, about the same amount of money. Keep in mind also that the studio does not get 100% of ticket sales – some of it goes to the theatres. These days, a film has to make double it’s production budget to break even.
not much goes to the theatres….they make their money off of concessions. The numbers I saw was $60 million to make including marketing etc. $70 million to date not including all of the branded merchandise goes to the movie coffers…
@JCFan,
I don’t mean to be snarky, but you’re highly misinformed and probably got your information off other uninformed internet posters. The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Economist, Deadline, etc. have all mentioned multiple times for the masses how movie studios keep only roughly half of box office receipts (the actual number is 55%).
Also Kulzer, Constantin’s co-president said marketing was 60 million for TMI. So the total cost, production + budgeting, is 120 million. Now since the studio only keeps 55%, TMI needs to make 220 million worldwide to BREAK EVEN.
For movies that make less than 100 million worldwide, DVD sales is about 10-15 million, don’t kid yourself that TMI has such a huge fanbase it will make 50 million in DVD sales.
No way merchandising will make it more than 20 million max either.
but Lily Collins but own some of her own Money into “City of Ashes” Before “City of Bones” came into the theaters she has faith in this project so should we ! When Percy Jackson got a 2nd Movie when even the first didn’t made that much we will get for sure ” City of Ashes” at the end of 2014 or 2015 we will see let’s be patient .
They should get a new director
I definitely agree. Not just a new director , a new screen writer.
I would say I was quite OK with Harald’s direction, but the screenplay for CoB obviously had huge holes in explaining the general mythology and oversimplified Valentine’s ideas and made his behaviour look erratic and stupid at the end of the film. I say let jessica Postigo go. Why not sign up Philippa Boyens who did such a wonderful job with Lord of the Rings?
Why not Steve Kloves as a screen writer… He did all the Harry Potter films. Harald Zwart was great. There were storyline gaps that didn’t follow if you hadn’t read the books. Lost in translation. However, it was a good film. I wish Idris and more of Valentines (kind) manipulation had gotten in the film with Jace. It would have produced more of a torn conflict with Jace. My question is how are they going to work the next book with the twist already being disclosed in the first film? I hope this series continues.
It’s over guys. At least we have the first movie.
No need to get negative… yet. Keep your fingers crossed.
Come on even Percy Jackson got a 2nd Movie so we will get for sure “City of Ashes” And Lily Collins put some of her own money into the new Movie BEFORE “City of Bones” were out in the Theaters .
There was never an official release date just.. 2014… plus the bad Box Office performance… I know 70 million is nice but not great.. not a franchise opener… so this was expected. 😦
70M? Where? Box Office Mojo says 37M=Worldwide!
Moszkowicz is a liar!
I have seen 2 different articles in regards to the world wide gross. So it isn’t that he is a liar……someone out there is miss quoting the numbers….not to mention 37 million was the number I saw for last week…not including this past weekend.
Incorrect information re the gross. As of the holiday weekend, Aug 30-Sep 1, COB had grossed $61,727,695 worldwide. Another week has gone by but the movie is still in the Top 10 worldwide. I think that the reason given, that the screenplay is incomplete, is valid. They don’t want to fly by the seat of their pants when there is so much money involved. They will also gross a lot from the sale of the DVD’s so people need to pre-order them.
Martin addressed the box office numbers on box office websites and them being wrong. It’s made nearly $70 million worldwide as of yesterday. That’s not factoring merchandise and future DVD sales.
$37 million domestic
You’re 100% right. From BoxOfficeMojo:
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Worldwide: $37,105,182 (as of Sep. 9, 2013)
No, Boxofficemojo has not updated the numbers for quite a while now. If you go to CoB’s page and click foreign, you can add up the numbers and clearly see the total is more than 9 mil. as they currently say. Not sure why they haven’t updated the page for more than a week. On boxoffice com the worldwide total is at 54 mil, without counting the last weekend at the boxoffice. They will definitely lose money, just not as much as people say.
Box Office Mojo does not update their international box office figures regularly. They haven’t changed that figure since the first week, so only the domestic figures are accurate.
I hope this is only a postponement and not a cancellation, but I think unless they make an announcement in the next few months about when filming is actually going to start, then it is indeed cancelled. I think it would be stupid to try to change the main cast at this point. But Jamie, Lily and Robert are supposed to be teenagers in the books and if you push back this production years instead of months, they will be too old to play these parts. I think City of Bones was great and I wouldn’t replace the director or screenwriter. They could probably cut costs by filming in a place like the Czech Republic or Bulgaria and recycle exterior “New York” sites from City of Bones. But honestly, I think other than the bad luck of releasing City of Bones against 2 sleepers, The Butler and We’re the Millers” became hits and 2 blockbusters, Planes and One Direction, the biggest single mistake was in the marketing. They seemed to do most of their marketing to the fan base, who was waiting to see the movie anyway. They needed to target people who knew nothing about the books. The Hunger Games was a YA series, too, but never marketed their films that way.
Martin Moskowitz, I truly hope you are serious about this being a postponement and not a cancellation, because I’m tired of spin.
Ha! We have responded almost at the same time 🙂
I agree with you a 100%. It better just be a postponement. Also it is true that they need to hurry so the can still be teens in the movie so they are not to old. So dont postpone the movies. I agree with you 100% Lizzie. Please keep the same cast, and director. I love the cast, and every thing else about they movie. Please hurry with filming the movies. People are waiting for the movies to come out. I am waiting.
I LOVE City of Bones
I know they were planning on filming COA and COG back to back, hopefully that might be a contributing factor, get all ducks in a row and then begin filiming when they get everything down pat….please make the rest!!!!
This scares me but I hope they are serious about ‘repositioning’ the distribution. They had NO advertising whatsoever…I only knew about it because I heard about it at Comic Con in 2012 and they did the panel in 2013. But I was very disappointed in the fact that there were NO trailers, hardly any commercials till the week before practically. It was just not advertised at all…I have seen City of Bones 15 times…I hope they continue it. They left so much up in the air. I think that was a problem for the people who did not read the books.
True on no advertising! I didn’t see of hear anything on t.v. or even in movie trailers in the theaters. What were they thinking? If I hadn’t read the books and followed it on The Mortal Instruments Source page, I wouldn’t have known they were making this series into a film.
No advertising in Australia. Piss poor effort by there marketing team or lack there of.
Virtually nothing in the UK either just 2 TV spots. Not even bus stop posters. How do you expect to get people excited about a movie if you don’t get the right information out there?
$60M for movie, $30M for promotion. $70M right now from the box office does not help us.
This is typical. Sometimes production companies will greenlight a movie to boost movie sales and popularity. To show that they believe the movie will be a success.
Now if they are waiting for better results from the box office, it would make sense to delay production. However, if the results aren’t good then the second movie will be cancelled.
It’s a crap shoot with these genre’s. It’s unfortunate, but it happens.
Exactly. Nice to see someone on here who understands how it works. It’s nowhere near profitability and it’s out of the top 10 domestically and not doing great overseas. Thee fanbase and audience were not there for this movie and added to the bad release date and reviews.
Also where did they spend this $30 million on promotion? The advertising for this movie was garbage.
I believe I saw the promotion costs listed on a box office site, Hero.
I might be wrong on the price though, but that’s what’s been floating around. It’s all about the bottom line. I’m the last one who wants this to tank, but it might happen.
If they’re delaying it for script reasons then that’s understandable. But we might have to face facts that it’s done.
@Hero and Sibby, Constantin’s co-president Kulzer told the Los Angeles Times that the marketing budget was 60 million, not 30 million. Also, yes they spent huge on marketing. Consider huge stars like Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence who only do promos in LA, London, Berlin, Tokyo…..TMI did premieres even in places like Norway and crap…..they spent way more on marketing than any A-lister movie would.
@Emma, really? Damn. I didn’t read that story, just got the info off of a box office site a while back. Certainly not good news. And breaking even would have to be around 120M+, correct?
@Sibby, Kulzer mentions the 60 million in the LA Times article “Building a foundation on city of bones”.
Kulzer, the co president of Constantin, says “…..now that $60 million has been spent worldwide on prints and advertising….”
So the 60 million marketing budget is not included in the 60 million production budget, so the total cost of the movie was 120 million. I mentioned this in a post above, but reputable sources like The Economist, Forbes, Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times have mentioned in articles about how the movie system works is that studios keep only 50% (it’s actually 55%) of box office receipts, meaning for a 120 million film, it needs to hit 220 million worldwide to break even.
Didn’t help that in my area they decide to have a midnight showing the day of….and they should’ve released it during the summer.
You too??? I’m from Chicago and almost all midnight premieres were canceled here because they weren’t allowed to have them! Chicago is a major city and I know that there were a lot of people who were going to see it that night and then there wasn’t anything to go see
HELL NO. I’ve seen the film and I just loved it so much, but I know there’s á lot of people complaining about the changes and all and now this news. I knew it didn’t have a good performance but please let’s just hope we will have city of ashes news soon 😦
Noooo
I thought the movie was great. And fupping Resident Evil gets 6 movies, and those movies aren’t even good. I think the movie would have done better if non-book fans hadn’t kept thinking it was like twilight. If they had just gone to the movie with no comparisons in mind then perhaps more people would have gone to see it. If I wasn’t on a budget, I would have seen that movie multiple times. I thought it was amazing.
I went with non-shadowhunters and they loved it. They were upset about waiting so long for the next movie. The box office was disappointing, but as Jace says “have a little faith.”
oh come on why is everyone so pessimistic? I might not know much about the box office and the profit stuff, but I’m not thinking about any cancellation just because of this delay notice, the movie might not be favorite much in my country, but it is in other country. So I hope everyone can show their support and not just having this “movie will be cancel” idea
agree
Guys, there’s a lot of financial businessy stuff into it because the film biz can be pretty complicated but hey let’s look at the optimistic side instead of automatically stamping it as canceled and what-not: IT’S STILL POSSIBLE. THEY’RE NOT COMPLETELY TRASHING IT. I think they’re waiting for DVD sales, etc. There have been franchises that grow more once it’s released to DVD and I’m sure there’s plenty of people that are waiting to see it then so sales and awareness and the fanbase can increase so stop assuming and let’s start doing something about it. What we all should do as fans is spread the word about the film, continue to go see it in theaters as much as possible, show friends and family and get them to read the books (get them hooked on the series we all love too, that shouldn’t be that hard since they are really good and already have a huge reading fanbase). We should continue holding events, etc just anything to get more people to want the film. If we want it, which I think we all do especially CoG (I’ll be soooo sad if we never get to them and I’m sure I’m not the only one), then we’re going to have to work for it. It really doesn’t take that much work either. I think each fan should have a goal of getting 5 other people to read the books/see the movie and go from there. The faster they see even more interest, the faster we’ll get the films. And remember what Jamie said, they’re not getting any younger so we all should spread the word as much and as soon as possible. Maybe a Shadowhunter mass project? I don’t know, anything, but you get my point. Just don’t count the film out quite yet.
I like Lizzie’s idea. And I strongly thing that the main cause of the movies downfall (And most YA adaptations for that matter) is the comparisson factor, as it was refered to either as “Not as good as Hunger Games/Harry Potter” or worse the “Oh, no. another Twilight wannabe” factor.
I love all these series and I recently became a part of the Shadowhunter fandom as well, so I think if mundanes aren’t responding to CoB we do need to get in action and promote the books/movies as much as we possibly can. I’ve seen it three times and I’m planning to purchase the best Blu Ray edition when it comes out. I loved the books, loved the movie and I want to see at least up till CoG on the big screen, even if fans had to pay for the movie ourselves with a kickstarter like Veronica Mars fans did. I’d totally be in for it if it had to come to that. Hope we don’t have to.
TWITTER #WeNeedCityOfAshes
I think they spent WAY too much money on things like the Hot Topic line and movie companions. Don’t get me wrong those things were cool and stuff but they didn’t have a lot of money left over to do commercials and stuff. The only place I ever saw a commercial for the movie was MTV. No other major channels like TBS, TLC, Nick, etc. I think commercials would have been a better use of money, probably would have encouraged more people to see it, and may even be cheaper than everything else they did to advertise. And the Hot Topic merch, though cool, was really expensive and I doubt that even really really dedicated fans (such as myself) bought a lot of it.
That’s not how merchandise works. They don’t spend money on the merch. The companies pay them.
TMI had a marketing budget of 60 million, the same as its production budget. Most movies have marketing budgets that never exceed 50% of production budget, so yes TMI had a huge marketing budget. Do you ever see Angelina Jolie do promotion in Norway like Lily Collins did?
And hey, this may even be a good thing! Think about it: they’re postponing it to improve it. They’ll improve the marketing and all this other stuff that may have lacked previously and it will probably be even BETTER when they do film it. And the movie was really good in my opinion but can you imagine with these new improvements they’ll be able to make with this time? Look at it positively. There’s a lot more than meets the eye in this decision. Post-poning doesn’t mean they’re going to stop working on it, in fact that means they’ll probably be working on it even more. Don’t come to assumptions too fast.
P.S. We are starting to trend #WeNeedCityOfAshes on twitter. Everyone get involved!
They might not have made a bigger profit but they’ve gotten more fans that before the movie came out. Look it was the same for the Hunger Games series and now look at it! If they cancel I’ll be pissed and they will have a lot of pissed fans and others!
The advertising wasn’t all that good if you ask me. People kept going on and on about, “Oh just another Twilight movie.” And if not for being a fan of the books, I barely even heard of the movie! I’m not giving up hope YET. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed!
They are saying that there are screenplay problems really¿?—- when all the actos involve meaning Jamie, Robert, Lily and Kevin said they were getting the scripts in a few days¿?….. i think the people that is in charge of the marketing outside the US left them hanging becuse of the low sucess the movie has had and without money they cant make a movie…. The movie hasnt still premiere in my country It opens on Fri 13 and i think mine and some other three are the only country left for the premiere!…… DAMN im sad and pissed off RN i wanted COA movies so badly that is my favorite book of all
According to imdb the only countries left are :
Czech Republic 12 September 2013
South Korea 12 September 2013
Venezuela 13 September 2013
Belgium 16 October 2013
France 16 October 2013.
If they wait until CoB is out of theaters (end of Oct-start Nov?) it would be an indeed wise move but not longer coz the actors might not be available later. I don’t even know if I am to still hope?
France has a big fan base of TMI so we’ll see what happens there but that makes another month and the weather in Toronto will not be improving.
That`s what im saying im from Venezuela and the movie is dated to release on the FRI 13 and then just two countrys left and the promo here for that movie is NONE just a few posters on the teathers and no more! i dont think the 6 country left are so much help for a making a money improvement to the movie.. but i hope they`ll get a date to start producing the film soon cause im pretty sure after this months pass they are going to say that the actors dont have the time, i mean Robert himself said he was rolling a movie about a guy with Aspergers this past month and then he will be going to Toronto for COA and if that is not happening now we are gonna be screwed!
None of those countries are huge moneymakers, just check how much those countries make for huge movies like Superman and WWZ and Iron man which came out this year. TMI will only make a super tiny fraction of what those three movies made. The big money makers outside the US include Russia (it made like 4 million there), South Korea, Japan (government didn’t allow it to open there, etc. France is an okay money maker place.
Also don’t expect it to make much in South Korea because the culture of Asian countries (which is why it’s not opening in Japan) hate TMI concepts and Twilight is an exception that made on average 600 million a film so don’t compare TMI to Twilight because Twilight’s success is HUGE.
I saw City if Bones in the cinema and i loved it. In my opinion the reason why the movie isn’t doing that well is because of those bitchy critics on rotten tomatoes. I mean they are just so stupid. The 1D movie, which totally sucks, has a score of 50% and TMI only has 12%. I mean, common, give me a break. TMI is a zillion times better. Besides, if the movie had been released during the summer, i think more people would have watched it. I haven’t lost hope on Ciy of Ashes.
I am not going to give up hope first of all it sounds like they want to delay fliming so they retool things. That isnt a bad thing. It means they are taking notice of the changes they need to make.
I’ve seen other movies get delayed before and I’ve seen other movies get ‘delayed’, from how they are talking it doesn’t sound like they are planning to cancel it, it does mention not finished screenplay. So maybe they are rewriting the script again. You have to remember guys… the first movie had a VERY long production time before it started filming. It also had a lot of script rewrites. They may have just decided to scrap what they had.
I hope that as well! Maybe they are looking at what the fans had to say about it, and are going at it from a different angle. It is a numbers game, but in most businesses, you have to start somewhere. Maybe taking a slight loss on this one will improve the series overall. I am just praying to see it continued!
Exactly, as of right now that really does seem like part of it.
I know this is bad to say, but I saw this coming…
All this freaking negativity. I’m not sure everyone understands everything from a business angle. This has never been about art as far as producers are concerned; it’s about the bottom line. They have a freaking perfect cast they will lose because I’m sure they will get other offers while they’re waiting . . .
Oh we’ll hmm this is disappointing news
Ok let’s not make assumptions. They would have told us. This is a smart move. Plus why would lily be on Toronto?
Not to be rude but Lily’s life isn’t about TMI. She could be in Toronto for another reason. There are a lot of industry people in Toronto at the moment due to TIFF. Maybe she was meeting with them?
Well, if they would skip those stupid facepalm-moments between Clary and Jace next time and actually focus on the REAL story and not leave important things out and add stuff that wasn’t even in the books….
They better not push back the release to 2015 too…
Lol. Agreed
wow already seeing negative comments from you guys just calm down I believe the movie will still continue you on I rather wait bit for a second movie then to be disappointed with a canceled one… plus it gives them time to fix the script seeing how the movie did want to make it even better and make the fan base increase you must not give up on hope yet already im seeing negative comments and it pisses me off by I have no right to speak my opinion about that since you guys have your own I respect that but I believe this will continue on!
Although I am little disappointed, I am also glad to hear this at the same time; the first movie wasn’t that overall(but there were moments I enjoyed). While I was watching the movie, I felt that if I had not read the book, i would have been lost because the pacing was too fast(my friends who were with me that haven’t read the book had trouble following it). Also, they tried too hard selling the Jace/Clary romance. For instance the scene where she falls on top of Jace was not necessary and the Greenhouse scene was cheesy(this is not the type of film where Demi Lovato just comes out of nowhere. Plus the kiss was not suppose to be hot-n-heavy). Plus I felt that if they had not warped the last 1/2 of..then some of the story lines would’ve been more effective. Basically if they wanted to capture a wider-fanbase, they shouldn’t have been focused on just targeting the twilight-fanbase. All that to say, i was not the actors fault, it was whoever wrote the screenplay; So, I am glad that Constatin sees that it needs to make some serious adjustments if it wants the franchise to succeed because the books are AMAZING!
I’m alright with the postponing.
As long as we get CoA
I enjoyed the movie and ive read the books, I hope that it is just delayed and not cancelled. Maybe all the fans should petition the studio and let them know just how much we want city of ashes made.
So sad to hear that :C But hope dies last 😉
I’m from Germany and just to assure you, there wasnt any advertising for CoB, even its co-produced by a german company :C
(so glad i tripped on the englisch trailer on youtube or i would have missed a really great world ;))
Hope they don’t cancel it altogether! I would have loved to see the sequel!
I’m sorry to say it but I saw this coming considering how bad the first movie turned out. The reason this is happening is because CoB unfortunately had one of the most amateur directors, scripts and screenwriters you can imagine. And the whole “Chosen one” and “Epic battle between good and evil” tagline certainly didn’t help draw people in to see the movie. That crap wasn’t even in the book! I honestly wish that this particular studio and Harald Zwart stay as far away from further TMI movies as possible as they allowed their egos to butcher CoB by changing 75% of the story and turning it into just another dumbed-down, cliche cheesy teenybopper movie. I feel really sad for Cassie as they not only disrespected her beautiful source material, but they also cut out her cameo in the movie. It’s a sad state of affairs and I feel bad for the cast too.
I respect your right to your opinion, on the film, director, cast, etc. etc. But I disagree totally with everything you said. I, and the people I brought with me to see the movie loved it.
As to your feeling that Cassie was disrespected, that’s total bull. They involved her in the production much more so than most authors, outside of Stephenie Meyer or Stephen King. She had a lot of input into everything, including the ending, which she rewrote for Lily and Jamie. She’s the granddaughter of a famous movie producer and she understands how a book to movie adaptation works, and how things had to change. She has said over and over how happy she was with the film. So when you call the movie “dumbed down, cliche cheesy, teenybopper” then you are really the one disrespecting her.
I didn’t like the screenplay and not because of the changes, but the forced moments of comedy, the numerous plot holes, and the cheesy moments.
I hope we have at least City of Ashes in 2014 :S
totally agree with you and mina blak: this mediocre rendition of Cassandra Clare’s excellent work makes films like Twilight and The Hunger Games look like cult movies by comparison. So sorry for you Cassandra and so annoyed I can’t tell everyone to go see this movie to get drawn into the beautiful shadowhunter world. It’s best they don’t go ahead on production of CofA. Hopefully in the future when the fanbase for the books is a lot more significant someone will remake CofB and we’ll start over.
I really can not believe in this. I am Turkish and for seeing this film I went twice first with my boyfriend second with my whole family. Also, there has been only two weeks that film came to Turkey. I really really want to see second film. Please don’t do us, I know there is a big fandom of TMI.
After all, we have to stay realistic. If the film studios don’t make any profit, there won’t be a sequel. I think the producer thought that they would make money with a great blockbuster, but it turned out that they weren’t as successful as they wanted to be. It could be that they really are trying to do better in the sequel or they are thinking about cancelling it. We have to wait and hope.
It would be great to change the screenwriter, not just rewrite it. Postponing the filming (even if it’s truly postponing and not cancelling) is very dangerous – the cast has other movies to film at the beginning of 2014, they’ll lose the actors if they don’t start shooting now. The only possibility is that they’ll wait for the spring which leaves us with the 2015 release date. And they chose August this time for a reason – to avoid competition. In 2015 a new star wars movie comes out and will be in theaters for months – how do they plan to compete with THAT if they consider something like World’s End a competition and one of the reasons of the movie’s bad performance at the box office?!
Merchendising won’t bring much, there are not so many beautiful props like jewelry and costumes in this franchise like in LotR for example.
The only thing I see correcting the mistakes of the first movie and bringing more money in is its bluray and dvd release in extended cut and showing it on TV in many countries with good advertising or maybe even a thatrical release in this state. Harald mentioned in an interview that much background of the characters and mythology was filmed but didn’t make it into the final theatrical cut because the draft cut of the movie was 3,5 hours long. But it’s risky considering the added cost of such a release and no guaranty of success.
Marketing was NOT a problem of this movie, they did what they could and more. The first Twilight movie almost wasn’t promoted, wasn’t even released in many big countries (e.g. Russia) at all and still brought huge money in.
I don’t think pissed off fans scare Constantin very much. It’s not a lot of us, the box office showed it well. And what can angry fans possibly do to the studio to make it change its mind? Tweet them to death? we can do NOTHING. if we are so few we can’t even return them the cost of the film we are not the force to be reckoned with, let’s face it guys.
The screenplay had serious issues, true. I don’t know if by keeping the same screenwriter willl improve matters any.
Again true. They shouldn’t wait any longer than a month or so, after CoB has opened and closed its theater run or else I don’t see how we can actually get CoA like ever…
Choosing late August was indeed a big mistake. Especially when the film aimed at younger audiences who have school/college commitments. October would be wiser. And it would leave more time to edit the film better by keeping staff that were cut and were potentially crucial to the mythology and choosing the soundtrack wiser. (greenhouse and dumort scene wtf?) Competition is good. It shows general interest in that particular release time not a dead time period.
Agreed. At least put the extra about 1 and a half hour to the dvd would be smart. Explain what was never explained in the film. Backstory. Raziel and the Mortal Instrumens? City of Bones/Silent City/Silent Brothers? Stele? Accords? Sensor?
Disagree. The marketing was completely on the wrong direction. They advertised it like the next Twilight (join the phenomenon with screaming little girls tv spot?) or Hunger games (more exciting than the Hunger games tv spot?) And not like sth of its own. Which is a shame. Angels vs demons. Downworld. They also focused too much on the love aspect which is actually a sub-plot at least in the first book or not even relevant (love triangle?).
I don’t see it as we can do nothing as fans but I don’t think we can do much either. And I don’t like feeling threatened to be able to get sequels. I did my part. I watched the movie. Twice. I said generally good things about it. I converted a few others. I don’t have to watch it a gazillion times to prove sth. That’s not my job. I don’t even have a job at the moment. This shouldn’t be happening.
I agree with you that the fans shouldn’t feel responsible for the unsuccesful box office performance or try to even the score or “save the franchise” by going to see the movie for like the …teenth time and drag all their friends with them. That’ s just pushing it too far. If the movie is good enough these desperate measures are not necessary. The movie is for the viewers and not visa versa.
As for the marketing I meant that the quantity of promo actions was even more than usual, but you are totally right about the quality and direction of it, they should have done it in a different way. It’s just not being a part of this business it’s hard to say which way could be the right way. I hope Constantin’ll hire some experts who will figure out what exactly went wrong with the promotion of CoB and how to fix it with the next installment.
aww that’s so sad. I really don’t care if they do it as different as CoB, I just want the movie and don’t care how many changes will be there. *upset* *upset* *cries*
So now we don’t know when CoA will start filming…
Great. Just great.
People start petitions for everything. I think we should start one.
Not for nothing but releasing the movie when they did was a bad move. It hurt sales. And the trailers i did see didn’t give non-fans any idea what the movie was about. It showed the mall tour and “join the Fandom” tag line.
I will cross every finger, limb, eyes if I have to, in hopes of this film moving forward.
It’s all about the $$$, I am just plain heartbroken…………
In reading what has been said, this situation strikes me as being very similar to what happened on TASM2 with the Shailene Woodley/Mary Jane situation.
If postponing the film were truly a precursor to cancelling it outright, there would not have been follow-up clarification on the decision. People also don’t realize that, if they do cancel the film, they will have to buy out the entire cast’s contracts at great expense that they will never be able to recoup, so it is in their best interest to film the movie and release it so that there will at least be some chance of recouping their expenses.
Just as with the Woodley thing, this is a very straightforward situation where what we are being told is exactly what’s going on.
I agree with you in general and hope we are really told exactly what’s going on and they will carry on with making CoA.
I just want to point out that buying out the cast’s contracts is much cheeper for the studio than making another movie. They won’t make another movie just to make the cast work for that money. Even if every member of the cast were to get 1 mio for CoA (which is too much, they probably get much less), it’s like 10 mio to pay off them all, and the next movie production would cost at least 50-60 mio. If they believe a new movie wouldn’t be more successful than CoB it’s just easier for them to pay the actors off and cancel CoA if they want to avoid further losses.
Helga is right. Out of the young cast Lily was highest paid as the main character and best known of the young cast and I think she only got about or less than $500 000 according to an interview with the producers. Jennifer Lawrence got the same amount for The Hunger Games: $500 000 plus escalator bonuses for box office thresholds crossed and as Hunger Games was huge she ended up making well over $1million. Lily ‘s contract was probably similar but obviously TMI hasn’t performed well and didn’t pass any significant box office thresholds so it’s unlikely she made any additional money. KStew got $2million for the first Twilight movie. Besides Lily I think maybe Jared Harris, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Lena Headey would have got more or about the same, definitely not more than $1million, but the rest of the cast would have been very cheap. It’s much cheaper for Constantin to buy out the contracts and cancel the movie than to start production on CoA to be honest.
One thing I didn’t mention in my last post is the head of Constantin Films reaching out to fans. If this truly were a sign of cancellation, that would not have happened.
As far as the cast is concerned, I highly doubt that JCB, Lena, and JRM would have signed on to do the movies for paltry sums of money, as they have ‘name recognition’ even if they’re not ‘superstars’, and even more strongly doubt that Sigourney would sign on for paltry money because she IS a superstar, so it would cost much more to pay the cast than I think people realize, especially since you’d probably be having to pay the actors for both this CoA film as well as a CoG film since it doesn’t strike me as being likely that they weren’t signed on for the trilogy.
The thing is, Martin Moszckowicz is an unreliable source who twists facts all the time. For example, all his updates on boxoffice numbers are never supported b boxoffice mojo or rentrak which all the Hollywood studios like Sony (in TMI case they only did US marketing, not the whole shebang) and paramount confirm with, that is their box office numbers match up.
Second Martin says things like “TMI opens to number one in Australia” but on a Wednesday with no other new releases, obviously it would open to number 1. Ultimately it’s weekend rank was #4 despite having Wednesday and Thursday grosses too.
Also studios never admit that a movie sequel is cancelled due to bad performance because that affects current gross in theaters due to increased poor publicity. look at the Daniel Craig/Rachel Weisz disaster Dream House that bombed horribly because the studio admitted before release that the movie was crap and all the actors agreed.
Golden compass, Eragon, Green Lantern, Superman Returns were all supposed to have sequels and they never did and the studios kept saying the same old “it’s just postponed”.
In the TMI case an unfinished script is such BS because they green lit production in May so they had 3 extra months to work on the script compared to starting work after the movie proved to be a success.
@Sharon: knowledgeable you are, on the movie business, young padowan.
I’d like to add that it seems to be somewhat of a trend that a sequel “gets greenlit” before an opening, a psychological reverse of the “Dream House” effect (as if the makers of the movie think it is an absolute masterpiece and warrants a sequel whatever happens…which rarely works, case study “Green Lantern”).
I really have my thumbs up hoping TMI gets a sequel, but it is unlikely.
Well actually City of Bones didn’t lose them money since, according to wikipedia, the budget for the film was 60 million and so far the film has earned over 65 million so strictly financially speaking, the film was a success. Maybe they’re taking the complaints that fans and critics had about City of Bones into consideration for City of Ashes so they can make the movie as good as they possibly can.
It has been said so many times already that I thought it’s common knowledge by now. Yes, the budget was 60 million, but they also spent 60 on promotion and marketing. Not to mention that Constantin doesn’t keep 100% of the box office earnings, so the movie would actually need to make more than 120 million worldwide to break even.
That’s not how it works at all. The film cost 60M to make, plus another 60M spent on marketing costs. You’re already looking at a 120M budget for the company. They don’t get back all of the money from ticket sales, but lets just say they get half (I think the actual percentage is 55?), that means that in order to break even on just production costs, they need to make 180M WW. That’s not including the extra 60M marketing budget. Movies need to make 1.5x their budget for the company to break even and even more to start turning a profit. TMI is not going to reach it and I doubt DVD sales will help too much. I wouldn’t be surprised if any further talk of the sequel fades and then completely stops once the movie is out of theaters.
So it’s worse than I thought. Hope they manage to pull it through and make a better sequel, though I’m afraid you’re right in your last sentence.
I don’t have a good feeling about this ! I hate to say this but the sequel will make even less then this movie.
I don’t think so, because the fans WILL go to see the sequel, and it should make at least the same. They will hopefully make it better as well, not to mention the fact that CoA has great potential as a story. Maybe they can reduce the budget? That was the problem all along, since CoB HAS done better than The Host or Beautiful Creatures.
COB had a higher production budget and much higher marketing budget than the host and beautiful creatures. The general audience won’t even give the sequel a chance with a horrible 12 percent rating for the first movie.
I think it’s safe to say the general audience didn’t flock to CoB either, the fans were the bulk of the audience. Yes, it will be a struggle for them to sell it to non-fans at this point, I agree completely, though I think they could make CoA much better. It’s all in the screenplay, so it doesn’t make sense to keep the same writer.
I feel like it’s their own fault. If they had actually stayed true to the book like they should have and made the movie more like what we read there would have been a bigger and better audience for it.
I still want to know why they gave a potential franchise starter to Jessica Postigo, a writer with NO screen credits to her name. Every other YA franchise has writers who had written for respected TV and movies. Adapting a book for movie is difficult and City of Bones is not the best written book and very dense so it needs a skilled screenwriter to adapt it for the big screen. Jessica might be a nice lady but she’s totally unproven as a screenwriter so why did they give her such a big job. The script was even constantly being changed during filming. And then even after all the bad reviews came out and were bashing the screenplay they still had her writing the sequel instead of getting in a new respected screenwriter!
I do feel very sorry for the cast and crew, they all worked very hard on this. It’s just a pity for them that Sony and Constantin botched so many things up.
I think you’re being too hard on Jessica Postigo. As I loved the movie, I must have loved her script. And I have to say, if she turned in a crappy script Harald, the producers, Cassie could have turned down the script and replaced her. There is a really good interview with Jessica on the collider website. You should all read it.
Casssandra didn’t have a say in choosing the scriptwriter or the director. She repetedly said that the producers were kind enough to ask her opinion on many things, but this opinion was not decisive for them, they took some of her suggestions and disreguarded others. She also said that the script was the part of production she was the least involved in.
Jessica is really passionate about the book, it’s great, and maybe she did her best, but she hasn’t managed to keep enough mythology in to make it undersandable for non-readers, and the way she shredded Valentine’s views and ideas and his behaviour at the end is just unforgivable considering the consequences it can have for the future of the franchise.
Don’t get me wrong – I liked most of the movie. I liked the props, costumes, the acting was incredible, and I approve of most of the changes – the generally faster pace and the way events and locations were compressed, that they put demons in the last battle instead of the forsaken, the revealing that Jace and Clary being siblings was a lie. I think this was necessary. But the depth of the shadowhunters’ backstory was cut so short is doesn’t make sense: the main antagonist wasn’t properly introduced, we only get to hear that he wanted power and believed in the evolution of shadowhunters (this shallow explanation of his aggression raises more questions than it answers), we didn’t hear a word of other shadowhunters across the world or of Idris, their home, of the Accords and the Uprising. My friend who I saw the movie with for the first time (she hasn’t read the books) asked me after the movie why these shadowhunter guys in new york are the only ones left and what the clave is. she is a smart educated woman of 26 years old and she coildn’t figure it out. I myself was appalled to hear these shredded version of the backstory in the movie. It would only take 3-5 more minutes to get Hodge’s explaining of the story right and true to the books, and Jessica still did what she did. I wonder why Harald being as he said many times a fan of the books himself didn’t push Jessica to make this part deeper and better.
I don’t think Hero is too harsh on Jessica Postigo, Lizzie. The points stated are very legitimate. TBH, money spent on the wrong directions could definitely be involved…
@Helga I wish I could say I disagree…
Had the numbers been better for the movie I wouldn’t be concerned. I’m hoping they are still deciding to move forward but a postpone announcement definitely makes me nervous. They could be waiting to see what DVD sales and rentals look like and hope that drums up more excitement for City of Ashes. My other thought is they are attempting to make City of Ashes more marketable to nonreaders of the book series. We shall see but please tweet all of those involved in the movie, preorder city of bones, see the movie again and sign the petition. I have never wanted a movie to get made as much!
The movie was very good. As a huge fan of the books I understand the screenplay needed refining but comparing it to any other franchise diminishes its uniqueness. The story is epic and if continued to be made into movies can grow to be a cult classic. It is a story that fits for both genders but being compared to twilight on the get go is what may have reduced its success. The comparison is probably what hindered people from going as many disliked the twilight franchise, as I did. A rework on the promotion is what is needed. Sadhna , uk.
I’m really sorry to hear this, but like some of you guys said it might be a blessing in disguise. I loved the first half of the movie I thought it was great but there seemed to be a shift in gear for the second half and it all fell apart. Don’t get me wrong I understand that changes have to be made but they made too many huge changes that were frankly unnessessary. They need to really look at the script and be sure of it before even looking at the City of Ashes. My other major problem with COB was Magnus, he was always my favourite TMI character but Godfrey Gao was just terrible. I was so disappointed coz he seemed so nice and sweet in interviews but he was just not Magnus, it felt like he was reading his lines off prompt cards. With a new screenwriter, more preparation time and a new Magnus Bane COA could be a lot more successful than COB. Hopefuly the damage hasn’t already been done.
I’m trying to be very optimistic over this postponement. Everyone here has already stated that August was a bad time to bring a new franchise to the screen. If more thought had gone into not only the release date but also having some decent trailers, TV spots, teasers etc I’m sure it would have done better. Add to that the DVD sales it should definitely be good enough to continue with the series. Also if they made the movie and then we had to wait for ages for it to be released then we would be upset so they can’t win either the way. Stay positive that’s what I say.
I hope they will go forward with the CoA. But they really need to improve the screenplay for the second movie. I believe the poor screenplay for the CoB was the main reason why the movie is not doing good.
I agree, Lana 😦
Same 😦
The idiot screenwriter and director of the first movie pretty much put the nail in the coffin when they decided to stray too far away from their literary source. It’s going to be VERY difficult to get a decent screenplay of City of Ashes when too many things were either changed or spoiled, resulting in many important plot points in CoA becoming mute.
I believe that the intention to redo the screenplay and fix things is there, but by the time they come up with an adequate solution, the final numbers of City of Bones will be in and their simply won’t be a point to make the second movie.
They are idiots indeed couldn’t have said it better.
This movie is as good as dead.
I agree the momentum will be gone by the time they want to start filming. It would have been better had they started filming before the movie was released. I’m hoping they are doing this due to fan backlash from the changes and to make it more marketable to people who did not read the books.
Does anyone know if it is possible for a franchise to be picked up by another studion if the one who owns the rights doesn’t want it anymore? Have there been any precedents?
The more I read the comments the more worried I get. As some people above pointed out the talk of postponing the production can really be just a way of ensure that people will still come to the theaters and watch what they think to be the beginning of a new film series. No one will go see such “starter”-film without the assurance that the story will be continued.
I love Cassandra and her books, I love the cast of the movie and the special effects… sadly, I deeply dislike how they portrayed Valentine, the plot holes, and generally speaking: the last part of the movie! IMO it is where everything breaks apart. Alaric dies but since he was never properly introduced, audience cannot care for it, I mean, you can hardly care about Luke at this point, for so little screentime he’s gotten. The evil guys are walking the sacred Institute like it was their home all along, they all seem foolish for falling into the sister-brother trap aaand we lose that MAJOR cliffhanger too, Hodge goes from good to bad to good again and nobody cares, Magnus just walks in conveniently into the Institute to save Alec…
I loved LOTR books, I saw the first movie 9 times in Theaters and dragged all my friends and family to watch it. With this one I don’t even have the heart to tell my beloveds to go watch it because I feel I would be cheating them if I told them it was good. When they ask me if I would recommend it I just grimace/smile and tell them the cast is superhot, the stunts are awesome… and they should read the books because they rock 😦
I watched it with a person that has not read the books, and his opinion was mainly the same, a lot of plot holes and notsogood direction in the end (they are burning devils with a flamethrower…devils that come out of a fire spiral FCS).
I think the movie got great publicity, but something did not glue well in the end. I hope if there is a sequel they get it fixed.
The flamethrower was wtf? probably a fire distinguisher would freeze them but then there would be no need for the rune on clary’s hand and this would add to other staff that weren’t needed like the head out of the window/golden retriever line.
Is this bad scripting or directing though?
So about the flamethrower only way for it to have any kind of sense at all is if the fire thrown is actually heavenly fire, but stil how the heck would heavenly fire be available yet is just another thing that adds on the pile of random staff crammed in from the next books…
I wanted to address the comments someone made concerning sequels to Eragon, The Golden Compass, and Superman Returns being planned but ‘postponed’ and later cancelled:
1) There was never an Eragon sequel planned
2) It was stated before the release of The Golden Compass that sequel films would be contingent on the film’s financial success, and when the film underperformed due to the controversy surrounding it, the sequels were killed before they could even get off the ground
3) The sequel to Superman Returns fell apart due to the passage of time, the people being involved leaving for other projects, and Warner Bros. opting to go in a different direction
This City of Ashes thing is very different, and is far more akin to what happened with G.I. Joe Retaliation, which also had its official date of production ‘postponed indefinitely’ due to script issues, but was ultimately still released.
Disregard what I just said concerning G.I. Joe Retaliation, as I was mistaken concerning it.
I’ll be first to admit that I loved the movie for what it was and all it’s flaws. In some points I liked it better than the book, while in others I think that it got very lazy and rushed.
In all honesty I think that a change in culture was very much needed for the movies to thrive. Zwart was trying to spin too many plates, breaking his neck along with the creative team to appeal to the teenage girl demographic, when this series has the likelihood of gathering the following of a Hunger Games Franchise that immediately pulled a very diverse movie going crowd.
The flaw that I’m pretty sure they’re looking to squish with this delay is to shift gears and make this more appealing to everyone and find a way to make this a grown up movie franchise with a lot more grit like a Alan Moore series akin to Hellblazer or any other dark supernatural fantasy dealing with Heaven and Hell.
Also it would do well to fire their advertising team, which marketed the first movie so terribly. It was as if they all somehow never cracked a laptop and saw the backlash against Twilight and thought “Girls like Twilight … this seems like a girl movie, let’s market it like Twilight.” while attaching sugar pop artists to the album that they had to work into the movie. They clearly forgot one thing …
Teenagers don’t watch teenager movies, they want to watch movies that treat them seriously and that’s not what this movie did at all.
One of the successes of the Hunger Games was that it was taken seriously, with a serious score, by a serious Composer, with a separate Album of ADULT artists singing ADULT songs (that didn’t interrupt the move), and a story that everyone could get behind.
TMI had the story, Had the cast (Lena Headey, Aiden Turner, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Freakin Morirarty.) But a director that had too many visions and a very narrow view.
In my opinion the delay is a good thing and gives the money men time to fire Zwart and understand that this franchise needs better talent behind the camera, to grow up, and diversify.
If girls can love male heroes like Batman, than dudes can love just as equally female heroines like Clary and Jocelyn.
Tell’em Steve Dave
(Overly long rant by 23 year old male fan)
I agree with so much of what you said, except for firing Harald Zwart. If you liked the film, his vision was so much a part of that. And he was working from the script that apparently a lot of people agreed on. Even though it was published as YA, The Hunger Games has never sold itself as YA. After all it’s about , insurrection, children killing children. It has lots of violence, floggings, beatings, murder … everything that appeals to a different audience YA. So your points about THG are well taken, particularly about finding a diverse audience.
I think it’s also important to understand that not all films that make a lot of money are great films and not all films that underperform or flop at the box office are crap. There are some very good films out there that have not done well. Consider that the Wizard of Oz was originally considered a flop.
But I have to say that the hardest thing about dealing with the postponement (or cancellation) of City of Ashes is going on IMDB and seeing all the posts from the haters, who do the “ha ha ha, glad it’s canned, glad the movie flopped, I told you so, etc. etc.” Even if you didn’t like the movie or don’t like Cassandra Clare etc., this is someone’s job that’s not happening. Not only the actors, but the production crew. And someone losing their job or having to struggle to find another one, is never a laughing matter. Sometimes I think some of the posters on IMDB, never really see the movies, they simply go the the site so they can rant and complain about everything.
I’m of the mind that the difference between Zwart and what the Lionsgate studio did with Hunger Games is that they hired a guy to do a property that he had a vision for, who wasn’t interested in capitalizing on the Twilight food scraps, who really saw THG’s as a potential avenue in taking a subject matter very seriously.
Zwart was hired to make Sony money, he had a vision, then he changed his vision, then he changed it again, before fooling himself into believing that he could do all of it. There was no passion from anyone but Zwart and the main cast. It was simply treated as a money grab by the studio.
I give Zwart credit for his passion, but he also took risks with the humor, and interpretation of it, which most of his gambles backfired. In the movie business you don’t get second chances once you fail.
I’d like to see someone new come in and take it in a new direction, much in the terms of Frank Miller’s take on Batman in the Dark Knight Returns, in which he took what was considered campy and a joke, and took serious and dark.
I would keep in continuity all the camp of the first movie, but gradually make the characters (and by proxy the viewer) understand that a world of Demons and Monsters is a much more savage and dangerous place, than an old woman possessed by a demon trying to close a door. by the end of City of Ashes you’ve got to suck out that campiness and make everyone understand that when you grow up, the world changes … no one laughs when you’re sarcastic, and being a handsome shadow hunter won’t save your little brother. (Spoiler)
That’s the kind of movie that will stick with people, that’s a vision, a hard boiled gritty take. I know Clare didn’t really have that take (Her character’s tastes tend to be very hipster and pretentious) … but you know, this is the movies.
second every word. it was too teenage, especially the romance part. I hope they can age it up in the next installment if it will happen.
I agree also. I’m one of the older fans but none the less a big fan of the books and saw the movie three times. Yes there were things in the film I didn’t agree with but when has a book adaptation been exactly the same as the film I’m sure when the DVD comes out which I think should have been in time for Christmas and not January next year in the UK the final figures will show that this franchise needs to keep going but by then I hope the next movie will be well underway.
Everything begins and ends with a script. That’s the most basic thing. The director bases his work on it and I’m more than satisfied with Harald’s job considering what he had to work with.
And in the official announcement there was talk about script issues and in this sense the wait is indeed wise.
I was expecting darker to be honest. Not like Underworld/Constantine/Resident Evil but not like greenhouse pop candy *facepalm* scene nor club music vampire dancing, meant fighting either… So screenplay and soundtrack and I’m good.
According to Harald’s interviews he had very much input in the script and changed many things in the original draft after reading the book, so he is not innocent in its flaws. And the montage of the film was far from perfect – we have absolutely useless and unnecessary pieces there like Pangorn and Blackwell deciding who is to go up and who down the stairs, the ugly bird in the greenhouse scene (why did the director need it so out of place if he decided that kissing will be interrupted but the watering machine?), the unnaturally sounding golden retriever joke (I don’t think Clary was in the mood for jokes at the moment, it wasn’t in the book and honestly was just stupid), Clary screaming and Jace looking under the table to make sure he didn’t get her, Jace and Simon arguing about if the cops were demons (I’d prefer them to leave Jace’s “because I am stunningly attractive” line in the final cut instead) – they ate precious time that could be used for Hodge to tell the backstory properly so everyone could understand it right.
I pretty much like the score and the songs in the club scene and at the end, but the song for the greenhouse scene was way too cheesy, i read in some fan review a while ago that it would be much better for the scene to have specially composed music with no words in it, and I think so too.
Yes, make it darker and more grown up with compelling music of the same composer and no stupid dog jokes – and everyone will love it!
Ok truth is I don’t want Harald replaced and I’m not saying he didn’t, well I am, but he seems really devoted and deserves a second chance. That’s all. There were so many unnecessary staff thrown in like you mention and important staff cut out I could add to them but I don’t want to bash. I want improvement. And a better sequel. I already stated what needs handling – screenplay, soundtrack, Valentine. These 3 key words sum pretty much everything…
@Joy’s last comment: yeah, it pretty much sums everything up. Harald once said in an interview: you shouldn’t give people what they want, they deserve so much better. I hope the improvements will be done in the spirit of this phrase.
@Helga Actually, the spirit of this phrase suits better the occasion : “Quality over and before quantity”.
The fandom really needs to accept that this is a POSTPONEMENT, not a CANCELLATION, or the barrage of stupid comments is going to become overwhelming.
Even though I have not yet read the books myself, everything I’ve found regarding them and the film adaptation has given me the impression that, overall, it was actually a fairly good adaptation, changes and all, and I ultimately believe that the individuals at Constantin Films are committed to making as many film adaptations of Ms. Clare’s work as possible regardless of finances and will do everything they possibly can to make that happen.
Davey Elmer you are so right. We’re all inviting bad karma by calling this a cancellation and not a postponement, at least for the time being. If six months or a year goes by with no word then we can start to worry. A doom and gloom outlook, never helps anything.
Well, I wrote somewhere above that the actor’s contacts aren’t too expensive, so it’s not a reason for onstantin to continue with the franchise, but I quite forgot about the film rights – I think they cost much more than actors, so if the studio drops the franchise here they will lose any chance to get this money back. That might be a reason to try and make another better film with this pricy material. I hope it’s reason enough for Constantin.
@Helga – I couldn’t reply to your comments directly so I had to do it here. First off – The bird was in the book being in the garden and was in the movie to report that Jace and Clary were “together”.
The dog joke was in the book. It occurs in the truck on the way to Renwicks and is as follows: Clary “So when the moon’s only partly full, you only feel a little wolfy?” “you could say that.”
“Well, you can go ahead and hang your head out the car window if you feel like it.”
Luke Laughed, “I’m a werewolf, not a golden retriever.”
They continue to discuss the pack on the road to Renwicks…..
I know that the bird was in the book, but it had a role to plya there – the kissing stopped after the Jace noticed it and said that it means that Hodge can’t be far behind. In the film the kiss is interrupted by the watering machine and it’s not explained why they should go if the bird is here, so the bird’s appearance makes no sense to me and besides it looks neither clever no menacing as Hugo’s supposed to look, just lazy and a little fat.
As for the dog joke in Lukes car – my bad, I didn’t remenber it being in the book. But I don’t like the dog jokes in the movie anyway, especially the ones brom Pangorn. Considering how much of the more important material they cut leaving this thing in is just ridiculous.
YOU CAN SIGN A PETITION OF FANS TO MAKE THE CITY OF ASHES HAPPEN!!! I think we should all try it, it doesn’t take much time to fill the form.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/make-the-mortal-instruments-city-of-ashes-a-movie/signatures
I’m from India and I loved the movie, City of Bones though it was not exactly as in the book. I’m a fan of the books so I was really looking forward to see the movie however it was disappointing to see that there wasn’t any publicity. I think only the fan of the books had gone to see the movie. There were no posters, trailers or even show opening timings here.
Now there’s this news that the City of Ashes is on hold indefinitely. As long as they make the movie, I’m ready to wait. Hope they publicize well for the next part.
just want to see the next, and next ..next..next mortal instructment
movies, the charaters are good, the first movie is good, like the story and hope to know what they are going on? blessing the movies are going all right, if not i thing there are some secrets they can go on? not not only about money@@ finger cross @@ for the nex mortal instrument movie, and good luck to Jamie Compbell Boower, Lily Colin, they are all good!
At least Boxofficemojo updated (kind of) the foreign total, so now the movie is at 66 mil. worldwide. On the the-numbers dot com the total is at 73 mil, I think they have added the previous weekend.
Unfortunately, the-numbers 73 mil is wrong. The total is 66 mil worldwide. Let’s hope that France, South Korea, China and Japan bring 30 or 40 million more.
Yep, you’re right.
China only allows 34 Hollywood movies a year and it won’t allow as poorly received (12% rating) a movie as TMI and it’s not opening in Japan because the government censors refuse to let its content…as compared to Twilight who was hugely popular enough to let in, nobody in Japan cares about TMI. The themes of TMI don’t mesh with Asian culture so it won’t make more than 2 million South Korea. France can be a big money market, but usually only for big blockbusters like World War Z, Man of Steel, Monsters University, etc. TMI can’t expect more than 5 million max from France and probably it will only hit 3 million.
I have never wanted a film so Bad! It is making my mind go crazy. I feel better that you the fans want the same thing. I loved this movie. Who cares where Cassie got her ideas. There is so much buzz on this movie. We need this next installment City of Ashes. Maybe I’ll see it again this week 3rd time if I go.
That’s so sad… I hoped a total of 150 mil, but now that I know that, we can hope that it reaches 100 mil. The Japan thing is unfair, it could have helped with 3-5 million more. And China, I read somewhere that there will be a release in the third quarter of 2013, but now I know that it’s wrog. PS: Sorry for my bad english.
They’ll be a Mortal Instruments reboot with a new cast, crew and a director in a few years.
I do not want new cast :(.
Neither do I! When I read the books obviously I pictured what Jace was like in my mind and then Jamie was cast and that was exactly how I imagined him to be.
I dont want a new cast. I thought they were great
me too
I wish they do all 5 movies
They will more than likely make this movie. I am sure they listened to the feedback and decided that coa needed to stick closer to the book. That would make any screenplay in existence null. Even Cassandra said it wasn’t accurate. Also, cob would have done better if the release was timed correctly. Think of Twilight, you had to wait forever to watch it, summit knew what they were doing releasing in November. I am sure they will try to shoot for filming and post production to coincide with a much better movie release date. I enjoyed CoB but someone who has not read the books would be confused. Hopefully they will take that into account for future movies. And if not, Jamie will have to live on as my Jace. I was not happy with him as Jace, until I watched the movie and then I was like “sigh”. He was purrrrfect! CoA is not the best book, I like CoG which has more of a story to it. Let’s wait and see!
I fail to see how TMI wouldn’t mesh Japanese culture given that a lot of mangas feature vampires, warlocks, and even gay people, etc. It’s a very strange statement from Japan…I think there must be others reasons, maybe the books aren’t known in Japan. As for France, it won’t bring much more millions, “The Hunger Games” didn’t even do 2 millions and it was more known than TMI and the critics were far better…
???
Ok. It’s about HIGH time that some people STOP playing with the fandom and spread LIES about the future of TMI franchise. I’m not falling again. And thanks TMI source for deleting my comment. *tattooing myself with the faith rune*
im sorry to say.. i love the books, but hated the movie… like most people have been saying, the plot and screenplay was too convoluted! valentine just looked pretty stupid in the movie, when i absolutely love the madness in him in the books.
Im optimistic they’ll do the movie and if it means there trying to get it right then im prepared to be patient. Definitely needs a demographic change to make it more mature and appeal to a wider audience. I would love to see it a little darker and menacing, Shadowhunters are bad ass so I think the film needs to reflect that, delve into the darkness a little more, thats where the downworlders are it only makes sense. I hope they continue the films right through the series. I’m new to this TMI world and just loving the journey just finished CoFA.
If CoA doesn’t get a movie…
I WILL DIE.
Personally, I think the movie was pretty great. But for all the “real fans” of the novels, and I say this in order to favor Constantin Films, they should hire Cassandra Clare to do a rewrite of the movie City of Ashes and continue doing so with the rest. That would definitely attract the audience they desperately need and that way they can get back to production as quickly as possible.
No offence but if they really want to make a profit they NEED to make it closer to the book… No one really liked city of bones because they changed a whole bunch of stuff. Like Valentine left with the cup Clary didn’t keep it. I get that the director probably all wanted it to be his way but if he wants fans he needed to stay true to the book. Look at Beautiful Creatures that movie was sooooo faraway from the book and they aren’t gonna make a 2nd one.
Yeah that is so true but they have to cut stuff. But they need to make is closer to the book.
IF THEY DON’T GET TO ANY SIMON AND IZZY SCENES I’M GOING TO FLIPPPPP OUT COMPLETELY!!!!!!
It just wasn’t a good movie… I mean some parts were and was it so hard TO MAKE PPL LIKE JACE MORE. I’m sorry but I liked Simon better for Clary at the end and I don’t like that because ur supposed to me liking Jace more and Simon with Izzy but that’s later but still they needed to make it closer to the book. They way the director did it messed up A LOT of stuff for the future movies.
I just really want them to make 6 or 7 movies is that so hard to ask for universe just give me the movies. Make the screen play writers understand that the book is awesome already and if they do change it at least do it right please.
If they dont make a movie soon I will be so mad and very sad. I loved the books and the movie. They better start making City of Ashes. Please…… They cant make the first movie and just stop. The cast is great. I think they could do a great job with all of the movies. Just the person who plays Valintine needs to be more into it. But please Please do all of the movies. Hurry…….
I cant wait to long
I bought the movie as soon as it came out, and i have watched it like a million times. I got friends the movie for christmas!!!!!!
So it has been Over a year, are they going to reconsider making it. My daughter introduced me to the series and we really enjoy it. Would like to see what they can do with the rest of the series on screen.