MTV has another segment from The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones behind the scenes. This time, the cast is talking about their costumes and how it's "all about leather." (This video is for US only, but check back later for a youtube version!)
"It's very sexy. It's very edgy. It's not costume-y. It's very much a look," star Lily Collins — who plays Clary Fray — explained of the Shadowhunters' gear, which she sports later on in the film after learning she's not as mundane as she once thought.
"It's not easy to do stunts in boots and heels and leather and wearing a harness under tight leather pants," she continued. "That's a little difficult. But it's been really fun."
Another Shadowhunter staple is something just as dark much less ephemeral: powerful tattoos known as runes. The black markings, which cover the warriors head to toe, imbue them with heightened abilities and senses and are a necessity for fighting off foes. Unfortunately, in real life, they don't come with the ability to fast-forward time, meaning applying the intricate ink could take upwards of three hours.
"They're kind of a pain in the ass to put on in the morning," bemoaned Kevin Zegers, who plays Alec Lightwood.
"It takes about three hours," confirmed Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Jace Wayland. "We've managed to cut it down to about two and a half hours now. I will sleep in them sometimes. I won't shower. I'll stay in them, and then you come to work the next day, and it cuts down about two hours in the chair."
Of course, not every character wears Shadowhunter black, but that doesn't mean they aren't just as stylish. Take warlock Magnus Bane — played by Godfrey Gao — for instance, who was pants-less the day we visited set but had plenty of other embellishments to flaunt.
"I've put on glitter, eye shadows, nail polish, really glittery lipsticks, and I think I do have the red-powdered cheeks going on," Gao said with a grin.
Do you think the Shadowhunters are "looking better in black"?
Robert Sheehan, Lily Collins, and Jamie Campbell Bower
Aside from The Mortal Instruments photo shoots, I think this has to be one of my favourites. Look at part of The Mortal Instruments cast looking all sophisticated! This photoshoot is from Live UK Magazine.
Do you especially love the Jamily (Jamie Campbell Bower and Lily Collins) photos?
Or perhaps like Cassandra Clare, you like the one's with Robert Sheehan?
Godfrey Gao has not been confirmed to join the Mortal Instruments panel at San Diego Comic Con on July 19th. Help us trend #GodfreytoSDCC in hopes that Sony will see that we want our beloved Magnus at the SD Comic Con.
Along with many other Mortal Instruments fansites, we are getting together to trend #GodfreytoSDCC tomorrow (Fri. July 28) at noon (ET).
We know that not everyone has the chance to go to the San Diego Comic Con, but we all get to see pictures! So what do you say Shadowhunters: are you in?
Greatings for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Jamie Campbell Bower, Lily Collins, and Cassandra Clare. (via DiamondFilmsArg)
Jamie Campbell Bower's video to Latin America:
It looks like Jamie Campbell Bower is wearing something similar to the necklace from Hebeldesign.
Cassandra Clare, Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Lena Headey will make an appearance at the 2013 London Film and Comic Con. This exclusive Mortal Instruments panel will take place on Saturday. The tickets are a first-come-first serve and they're free.
According to Showmasters, there will be a special announcement!
To celebrate the announcement of the release date and new trailer for MORTAL INSTRUMENTS, the 2013 London Film and Comic Con is proud to host none other than JAMIE CAMPBELL BOWER, CASSANDRA CLARE and of course, LENA HEADEY for an EXCLUSIVE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS PANEL taking place on Saturday.
Tickets will be free and will be given out on a first come first served basis on Saturday morning. Who knows, there maybe some more exciting announcements related to this just around the corner...
Cassandra Clare will also be signing books after the show on Saturday.
Cassandra Clare will be signing copies of her books after taking part in the MORTAL INSTRUMENTS exclusive panel film launch on Saturday only.
The tickets to the panel is free, however, you must buy a ticket to get into the convention. Buy your ticket to the event here.
Leaf will be producing the Mortal Instruments trading cards.
About the cards:
2013 Leaf The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones base set has 100 cards. They don't just focus on the film's story. Character cards and behind-the-scenes shots round out the checklist.
Autographs and autographed cards are combined
Lily Collins, Lena Heady, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jamie Campbell Bower, CCH Pounder, Harald Zwart, and Cassandra Clare have signed some cards
Memorabilia cards come with enlarged swatches (samples) of the costumes worn in film
Set includes costumes from 13 different characters
Those pieces are larger than most entertainment trading card sets
There is limited amount (300 cases)
Estimated Release Date: 8/13 Product Configuration: 24 packs per box, 6 cards per pack Price Point: Low- to Mid-End Entertainment Card Target Audience: Mortal Instruments Fans, Young Collectors, Autograph Collectors, Set Builders, Movie Memorabilia Collectors
Lily Collins is featured on Glamour Magazine's July 2013 cover.
Glamour names Lily Collins as the "Next Big Thing"
She may be Glamour’s Next Big Thing cover girl, but for the paparazzi camped outside New York City’s Bergdorf Goodman department store during her cover shoot, Lily Collins is already a star. The 24-year-old actress and daughter of eighties rock legend Phil Collins, stars as Clary Fray in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, a much-tweeted-about fantasy adventure complete with a sequel in the works. Think of it this way: What The Hunger Games did for Jennifer Lawrence, this film franchise will do for Collins. Listen in.
Here is Glamour's interview with Lily Collins
Glamour: The Mortal Instruments is going to be epic too. Lily Collins: I’m so excited! I had read and really loved the books.Glamour: The anticipation level is pretty crazy. Readers have a lot of opinions about the movie.
Robert Sheehan is clearly pretty happy to be reunited with Jamie Campbell Bower for a little chat about the Mortal Instruments...
We are still swooning after seeing Robert Sheehan & Jamie Campbell Bower. The Mortal Instruments will be awesome twitter.com/handbagcom/sta…
— handbag.com (@handbagcom) May 30, 2013
2013 Projects To Watch: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Aug 26)
Why Is He Hot This Year?: If Gao is on the verge of breaking out because of a juicy bit part in a popular YA film adaptation, the film's lead should also brace himself for success.
Things To Know About Him: Campbell Bower isn't a stranger to the fantasy genre. He was a Volturi in The Twilight Saga and Grindelwald, aka Dumbledore's crush/lover/enemy in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Oh, and he used to date Ginny Weasley.
2013 Projects To Watch: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Aug 26)
Why Is He Hot This Year?: Gao is a smoking hot Taiwanese model and actor who is crossing over to Western films in a big way with one of the more juicy roles in a film filled with eye candy, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Also, he has a vocal online fan community.
Things To Know About Him: He was born in Taiwan, but moved to Canada at the age of 9, but then moved back to Taiwan to model and act in a plethora of teen dramas.
2013 Projects To Watch: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Aug 26)
Why Is He Hot This Year?: Sheehan is the third up-and-comer who could break out on The Mortal Instruments series alone. However, unlike Gao and Campbell Bower, he hasn't forged his path playing pretty boys, but character acting his way through cheeky anti-heroes and historical characters.
Things To Know About Him: Sheehan started acting professionally in his late teens in his native Ireland, grew in popularity and acclaim and jumped to the UK market with film roles and an electrifying performance in Misfits. He's appeared in a number of US films in supporting roles, but is poised for a crossover to Hollywood. Oh, and he apparently likes wine. That's good.
2013 Projects To Watch: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Aug 26) & The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Dec 13)
Why Is He Hot This Year?: Turner is probably the most visible dwarf in The Hobbit being that he's the youngest, (arguably) the hottest, and the one least covered in make-up and his character is one of the more "human" ones in the trilogy. On the flip side, he'll be the mature elder of the pack in The Mortal Instruments, so he's got two places to be seen in different ways by fantasy audiences.
Things To Know About Him: He recently cut his hair, which would be sad, but it still looks really, really, really good.
A collection of all the MTV interviews of Lily Collins, Kevin Zegers, and Jamie Campbell Bower from WonderCon 2013. (Videos only available to the US *sorry!* -blame MTV.com)
"I actually saw a lot of similarities between Clary and I," Lily said. "She's a go-getter. She's feisty. She fights for what she believes in, and I really associate a lot of her qualities with mine, but I also wanted to bring this realness to her, like she was just the girl next door, because I didn't want her to be this caricature of a fan-favorite heroine in a book. I wanted her to be someone you could be friends with next door."
Not an easy task, considering Clary is actually a descendant of a long line of demon-destroying Nephilim known as Shadowhunters. (I don't know about you, but the only super-human ability my childhood neighbor had was flying across the Slip 'n Slide really fast.) So how did Lily accomplish this feat?
"[By] incorporating a bit more humor into some of the situations with [Clary] and the boys—just not making her a constant victim," she explained. "Because I think when you're going through so many whats and whys in the span of every five minutes, those reactions could become really similar, and it becomes more of this, 'Oh, poor me. I'm in this situation.' When she's really like, 'Another problem? Solved! Another problem? Let's go!' So it's that really tenacious attitude I tried to incorporate more."
"I will be playing a young Gandalf, indeed," Jamie joked of the "Lord of the Rings" character. "That's my next job. You can't tell, but I'm in the process of growing out a very extensive beard."
In all seriousness, though, Jamie confirmed that he is a fan of the genre and that perhaps his casting in all these magical projects isn't simply a coincidence.
"What I love about the whole notion of sci-fi and fantasy is that it's a comletely different world, but underneath everything, there's a sort of reality that grounds it," he explained. "And people love to be taken out of their daily lives. I don't want to use the word 'mundane,' but that sort of drudgery, sometimes. Sci-fi and fantasy offer that. It offers that of the person watching it and for me, which I love."
"I think I showed up about four weeks before we started, and it went through filming, so then on lunch break we would go and rehearse the fight sequences," he said of the rigorous preparation. "[Director] Harald [Zwart] wanted us to do our own stuff, which I think when you watch the movie you can tell. It's sort of great, and you can see that it's us, and it's violence and just as, like, a guy, I saw the new trailer and it looks awesome. It looks like a big action movie, also obviously, the love story and everything are going on and the fantasy stuff. The action stuff looks awesome."
But, embodying a physically superior Shadowhunter came with a price for the 28-year-old.
"Brutal," he said with a laugh of the regimen. "I'm like the old one of the group. The young twenties kids were very spry and bounced back. When we finished I was very tired."
Lily Collins talks to Collider.com about her up coming movies, including The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
Here's a snippet from the interview where Lily talks about The Mortal Instruments:
After the trailer for The Mortal Instruments debuted, did you see the overwhelming response for it online? Are you prepared for the level of excitement for that film? COLLINS: I did a Q&A at The Grove where there were about 500 girls, all asking questions. Some of them were close to fainting and they were hyper-ventilating, and I was like, “This is so weird!” I was a fan of the books
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is re-shooting today and tomorrow (April 12). Some fans have already spotted the cast and crew.
Was told by the people that got me on set last time that they are indeed doing some on-location reshoots for TMI.
— Bianca ⚡ (@alicanteinidris) April 12, 2013
Shooting a scene of that Mortal Instruments movie down the road from me. Might get to see such B stars as Lily Collins and Lena Headley!
— Chris T (@CHRISTHOMSON_) April 12, 2013
...Along with Jared Harris, Kevin Durand, and Jonathan Rhys Myers!
— Chris T (@CHRISTHOMSON_) April 12, 2013
Also, Karola Dirnberger -the head hair department for City of Bones- has tweeted about working with
CraveOnline: When Hollywood started buying teen literary properties, did you bide your time and lord over this series while entertaining suitors?
Cassandra Clare: I didn’t. I was actually pretty early on the scene. I sold my books before Twilightcame out and so when we put the books out for movie studios and what not to buy the rights, YA was a pretty unknown phenomenon. People weren’t really sure what to do with it. It got bought by Unique Features and Constantin. They just really loved the story and they were on the same page with me, so I didn’t lord it over them. I didn’t wait and entertain suitors because there really wasn’t that kind of feeding frenzy back then. Now it is which is really interesting to me, but no, they’ve had the property for five years.
So did they shop it around and take it to different studios before Screen Gems?They did but Robert Kulzer, who is the producer at Constantin I’ve worked with the most, has a long term relationship with Screen Gems and Sony. They’ve done the Underworld movies together and I think he felt like they really had a handle on urban fantasy, so I think they were his first pick. Fortunately they got on board.
Do you need the movies to be strictly faithful to your books, or are you open to some interpretation?I’m open to some interpretation because I think one of the interesting things you can do with movies is, with the books you have the viewpoint of one character, Clary. So you can’t see anything as the reader that she doesn’t see. You can’t hear anything she doesn’t hear, you don’t know things she doesn’t know, but in a movie you can open out the world and you can see scenes that she wasn’t present for, and you can hear things that she doesn’t hear and know things she doesn’t know, and I think that creates some interesting experiments.
We know from the trailer they have the nightclub scene, right?Oh yeah, they definitely have the nightclub scene. I’m excited about that.
What was it like to see key scenes like that come to life?Oh, it’s very surreal because you’ve only ever imagined it and then suddenly there it is, coming to life on screen and you’re like, “Wow, somebody crawled inside my head and pulled out all this stuff and put it up on this big screen for everybody to see. It’s really incredible.
Were there certain scenes that they had to have in the movie?Yeah, there were certain scenes that I really, really wanted them to keep in the movie. The scene where Clary and Jace first talk, the marine house scene which is the romantic scene, and Magnus Bane’s party which is my favorite scene in the book. I really wanted to make sure they got that.
Are all of those scenes in the final cut?As far as I know, yes.
Collider released their interview video with Jamie Campbell Bower (which you can watch here) just a couple of days ago. As a follow up, they interviewed Cassie too!
Collider: When you started receiving interest about turning your book into a film, were you immediately excited about it, or were you hesitant about the idea? CASSANDRA CLARE: I was a little hesitant. I was excited about the idea, but I also was a little freaked out. I grew up in L.A. and I worked for The Hollywood Reporter. I knew enough about the business to know that the usual role of the author on a movie is to get out of the way and not say anything. So I thought, “How do I feel about turning this whole project over to people and letting them do what they want with it, not even knowing about it?” And then, Unique Features approached me – and that’s Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, and they did The Lord of the Rings, which are my favorite movies in the world – and I thought, “Well, if I’m going to sell this to somebody, it should be the people who made my favorite movies.”
With so many young adult books being turned into movies, what would you say to people to get them to understand that this is a very different type of story with its own mythology?
Page to Premiere and Fangirlish got a chance to interview Kevin Zegers at WonderCon (Mar. 30). Page to Premiere also talked to Jamie Campbell Bower while at WonderCon, check out all the interview videos here.
Q: So should I ask the Lily questions? We asked Lily what to ask you and she was saying that we should ask you what it was like to work with Godfrey Gao. K: It was great. He came in for like two days. So, he’s a busy guy. So he’s great. Not what I expected it to be. We were kinda just buddies. Probably not what fans would expect for our interaction. He seems like the kind of guy that I grew up with. Not super formal, kinda just a dude, we just hung out and talked about guy stuff. It was pretty mellow. Like I said it was like two days of work, so we didn’t get to know each other obviously as well as the rest of us did. And like in the first movie he’s kinda introduced and it doesn’t really go into our story as much as future books and movies, if there are ones, will. Q: The other question she told us to ask was; what did you guys do to get to know each other off set? K: We trained. We trained really hard, which when you are next to someone grunting and sweating for a few weeks – great ice breaker. We just worked a lot. When you work with someone as long as we did, all the courtesy stuff goes away and we are who we are. I say it all the time, but people on this movie were genuinely nice people. We laughed a lot. We were shooting sometimes 14 hours a day, so we weren’t going out partying all the time. It was a lot of work, but Lily and Jamie, they are still really close friends of mine. It was one of those experiences where we were all on the same page. Just got through it together. Q: With Cassie being on set, did she give you a lot of advice on how to play your character K: You know…she didn’t! We emailed once when I got the job. But no, she…I don’t know why. I think, she was there when we were in pre-production, and we were all talking about each of our takes on the characters and I think that she felt that I had a pretty good understanding of the character of Alec and where we want him to go. Sometimes it’s best to just… Q: Leave it alone. K: Yeah. I think if it was heading in a bad direction she would have said something. I always felt pretty grounded in who I think he is. It made it a little bit easier to – it’s not easy to be such a complicated character.
Finally, the interviews for WonderCon have been uploaded for all to see!
The interviews are in the order of when they were released, click here to see the most recent interview.
Cassandra Clare's interview:
Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower's interview:
PageToPremiers interview with Jamie Campbell Bower "Difference Between Himself and Jace":
Lily Collins's interview "Mortal Instruments vs. Twilight" along with some Jamie Campbell Bower (interview starts at 0:18)
It's impossible to compare something to what was first known as the first franchise to really hit big and that's Twilight. You know, it was it's own entity itself and it's ok to hope to have such a big fanbase like that but, I think when it comes to comparing and contrasting, it's so different. I mean, it's the world where there's angels and demons and it's a totally different universe than any other film that I've seen.
“They have opinions for everything and I love them for it,” Clare said. “I love that they’re so excited.
I was flooded with emails that were either, ‘I want to be in the movie’ or ‘So and so should be in the movie.’”
The first interview with Kevin Zegers has surfaced! (Thank you PageToPremier)
Interview from iamROGUE.com with Cassie, Jamie, and Kevin:
Interview with Jamie Campbell Bower from Collider.net
Collider: How did you come to this project? Did you know anything about the book series, or did you just read the script and respond to it?
JAMIE CAMPBELL BOWER: I was in Los Angeles for pilot season and the script had been in development for awhile. They sent me through just the sides, actually, for an audition. I responded really well to the sides, and I really, really liked it. It was a real last-minute thing. I was due to leave the day after, and I did leave the day after. And then, I got a call-back for a screen test here, so upon getting the call-back for the test, I read the book. I read book 1 and 2, actually. I read book 1 quite fully, and then just went through book 2. And then, I did the test and got the role. That’s how I came to be involved in the madness.
Interview from Movie Fanatic with Cassandra Clare, Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower and Kevin Zegers.
"It’s really intriguing and it’s really frightening too. There’s nothing like a movie that focuses this big lens onto your work that hasn’t been there before," Clare said.
She admitted her fans had their opinions about who should play who, but she wouldn’t have it any other way as Mortal Instruments fans are as passionate as they come. “They have opinions for everything and I love them for it,” Clare said. “I love that they’re so excited. I was flooded with emails that were either, ‘I want to be in the movie’ or ‘So and so should be in the movie.’”
Meanwhile, Collins lets us in on her thoughts on the most memorable moment for her as a part of this rapidly becoming-iconic series. She immediately credits the filmmakers for how she felt like she walked onto the pages of the book when she arrived on the set. "I love how the art department made all the sets feel true to the book,” Collins said.
She also appreciated the bonding with her castmates and filmmakers. “All of us really became one in making this movie.”
After her work in Mirror Mirror and now her starring role in this film, teased in the Mortal Instruments: City of Bones trailer, it is easy to see the passion the actress has for the genre. “I’ve always loved fantasy films. I love how they take me away to somewhere else. It’s not just fantasy that’s the big appeal with these movies -- it’s that they have heart.”
We also caught up with star Kevin Zegers, who portrays Alec Lightwood, as he explores what it was about this Mortal Instruments world that most compelled him.
"The biggest appeal was the character. I love this guy for whatever reason,” Zegers said. As soon as "action" was called, he immediately knew the book's secret to success. “Once we started shooting the movie, the world is great and it’s easy to see why the fans are crazy about it.”
Jamie Campbell Bower, who is fan favorite Jace Wayland, was just a little nervous about tackling a project that is so enormous in the world of popular culture. “I was terrified. There’s always a responsibility, even if it isn’t an adaptation to a popular book,” Bower said. “It’s a scary prospect, big time.”
Interview from i09 'Will the movie keep the gay hero?'
We asked Zegers if his character's sexuality is addressed in the first film, and he responded:
You know, it's not something that's really addressed totally. There's kind of the subtext of people assuming that [Alec] is. But it's not something that we really focused on in the first movie, just because theres so many traits that he has. It wasn't a focus, really.
But he says that they still "played around" with the idea that Alec has feelings for Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower), and that there's a hint of a love triangle between Alec, Jace and Clary (Lily Collins). "It's definitely in there," says Zegers. "We didn't hit anything straight on the nose. It doesn't have to be. But there's a lot of subtle things that go on between the three of us, that the audience can make up their own mind about."
As for whether we'll get to see Alec get a love interest of his own if there are sequels, Zegers says: "Of course. It's a huge part of the progression of the character. So I hope so. It's what the fans seem to love about the character, is his love story." So if they actually make more movies, he definitely hopes they explore that aspect.
Kevin Zegers, Lily Collins, and Jamie Campbell Bower all attended WonderCon along with Cassandra Clare. Check out Kevin, Lily, and Jamie's "red" carpet and WonderCon photos:
Lily Collins looking very much like a Shadowhunter by dressing in black:
