In what is widely assumed by everyone to be a desperate attempt to not lose millions of $$ on sets, costumes, and actor pay that was committed to a Mortal Instruments: City of Bones sequel before the original was released to dismal numbers, production on Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes has resumed. Don’t worry, the spin is in!:
Martin Moszkowicz, Constantin Film’s head of film and TV, said Clare’s massive fan base has responded positively to the adaptation and that Constantin is determined to continue the franchise.
“The fan response, from the blogosphere and the thousands of mails we have received, has encouraged us to keep going,” Moszkowicz told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s been overwhelmingly positive, in contrast to some other YA titles.”
Yes, it was the fans. Of which there wasn’t enough to even get the film over $100 million worldwide. But never fear, a tax writeoff of a failed sequel will probably keep Constantin Films around for a few more years. Or just end the company. Either way, the public wins with another ridiculous Mortal Instruments movie, though City of Ashes does not provide as many dirty jokes as City of Bones. For shame, Mortal Instruments!
It is assumed the entire cast will be back, they were even scheduled to start filming in September before everything was halted. I would wager on a rushed shooting schedule, lower budget, and weirder advertising for City of Ashes. Will this gamble pay off, or will it crash and burn like the Percy Jackson sequel? Only time will tell…
Remember: Never forget Cassandra Clare! Because her fanfic origin will be repeated again and again over the next decade.
Let’s put aside all the cool boner jokes you can make with the title of a film called Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, and instead focus on an issue that has less to do with the film and more to do with the book series and author Cassandra Clare. Be warned that I will be referencing some stuff that happened in the Harry Potter FanFic community, something that if you are not familiar with will sound very craZy with a random capital letter in the middle of the word.
Before we start, let me say I love this fanfic drama stuff. The fanfic itself..not so much. I simply don’t have time to read thousands of stories online in addition to all the other reading I do and the watching movies and writing about movies and having a wife and a job. But when things go controversial or weird, that’s when I pay attention, as I’m attracted to drama. It’s my honeypot!
Cassandra Clare got her online fame start as Cassandra Claire (neither are her real name, btw), writer of famed FanFic The Very Secret Diaries (a spoof of The Lord of the Rings) and The Draco Trilogy, an influential Harry Potter FanFic. The Draco Trilogy is where we are going to focus.
The Draco Trilogy features Draco Malfoy being redeemed and joining with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny on a series of adventures. It begins with Draco Dormiens, where polyjuice potion causes Harry and Draco to be permanently switched, and hijinks ensue. Needless to say, Draco becomes good, Sirius Black declares he will marry Draco’s mom (thus making Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy brothers!), and Harry confesses his love to Hermione (who rejects him!) In Draco Sinister, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Ginny battle Salazar Slytherin, who has returned to be evil and kidnap Hermione, because that’s what evil people do. The final chapter is Draco Veritas, which clocks in at over 500,000 words!! Needless to say, a bajillion things happen, including love dodecahedrons, people getting drunk all the time, fake coming out of the closet, and wizard strip clubs.
The Draco Trilogy was influential, producing numerous pieces of fan art and becoming the definitive story for the Draco/Ginny shippers. But it wasn’t without controversy, as it was discovered that portions of the stories were taken wholesale from sources without attribution. Buffy the Vampire Slayer quotes were the most easily spotted, as well as Babylon 5 lines. But there were a lot of passages from fantasy authors that were reworded slightly and inserted. If these sources had been identified in the beginning, no one would have cared, but it was the fact they were used freely and without disclosure that caused everyone to freak out. Her stories were removed from FanFiction.Net, though the ensuing controversy led to the creation of FictionAlley, where The Draco Trilogy reappeared (until it was deleted again right when Cassandra Clare got a book contract!)
Readers of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series got their own eerie sense of deja vu when they realized that some of the characters were basically Claire’s versions of the Harry Potter characters from The Draco Trilogy. Most specifically, series bad boy Jace is her version of Draco Malfoy, right down to directly quoting some of the same lines her Malfoy said in The Draco Trilogy. Heroine Clary is her Ginny. Alec=Harry, Isabelle=Blaise, Valentine=Lucius. This is problematic because even though they are her interpretations of characters, the characters are essentially the JK Rowling characters. It’s the same deal with the whole 50 Shades of Grey thing, where the characters are Edward and Bella because it was a fanfic first.
I love remixes, I love when cultural properties are used by others outside of their original scope. I love that it happens even when I don’t love the end results. But it’s nice to have acknowledgement that it is what is happening. Instead, we get silence and denials and outright drama. And Cassandra Clare is no stranger to random online drama. I get annoyed when people don’t acknowledge the obvious inspirations and sources of their materials. Cassandra Clare has a history of borrowing from others without consent, and while other fanfic writers who have gone off to be published (called profic) can come up with original ideas and settings and characters, the excessive reuse is troubling.
Also the film looks ridonkulous. Seriously ridonkulous. It will be a glorious train wreck. And maybe Godfrey Gao will become the new Asian heartthrob!
(Image from so many tumblrs I don’t even know any more!)
More YA fantasy is headed to the silver screen as the universe rushes to find the next Twilight before Twilight reboots itself. This attempt to gain the box office prize is Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, the first film in what is a six book urban fantasy series (which means at least seven films when we separate the last book into two parts again…) that features half-angels battling demons, and one girl who is the key to defeating the forces of evil. And from the plot synopsis, no love triangle, unless that nerdy guy from the trailer is also a love interest. Clary Fray has the power to see all these invisible angels and demons because of stuff given away in the trailer, so watch the trailer. The last Mortal Instruments book isn’t even out yet, which means it could all end horribly as well, and that’s not counting the prequel and sequel series. The Mortal Instruments series is written by Cassandra Clare, the script is written by Jessica Postigo, and Harald Zwart is the director. Lily Collins is the not ridiculously named Clary Fray, Jamie Campbell Bower is Jace Wayland, and Robert Sheehan is Simon Lewis, Kevin Zegers is Alec Lightwood, and Jemima West is Isabelle Lightwood.
Guess I should spend 20 minutes and read the books one day. Just so I can be smug during the film with what is missing.
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing—not even a smear of blood—to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know…
Anyone else think this film series writes it’s own porn parody titles?
