'Mortal Instrument' Author Talks Spoilers And Sequels

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[i]By Charles Webb[/i]

If this week's DVD release of "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" has whet your appetite for more film entries in the urban fantasy series, you're in luck. While Constantin Films has pushed back the start date for the movie to 2014, series author Cassandra Clare spoke to MTV News about what we can expect to see in the next chapter of star-crossed lovers/demon hunters Clary (Lily Collins) and Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower)'s story.

[url="""][img]http://mtv.mtvnimages.com/uri/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:978197?width=512&height=288[/img][/url][b]****Some spoilers for "City of Bones" and "City of Ash" to follow****[/b]

While actress Lily Collins told us earlier this month that she wasn't sure when shooting will start on "City of Ashes" ("I don't know anything else; I kind of am with everyone else in the waiting game.”) Cassandra Clare is ready for the sequel which she says "ratchets up the stakes".



"Simon (Robert Sheehan) is turned into a vampire," Clare teases, "And he goes from being this human who's Clary's friend to this ravenous undead thing." Clare adds that she pushed for Sheehan in the role, with early discussions about his casting centering on how right he'd look stalking the night and sucking blood. "Robbie was actually my idea," she says. "I saw him in 'Misfits,' which is a big comedy hit in Britain, and he's just so good and yet also able to be heartbreaking and I thought he'll be great and he will enjoy the hell out of being a vampire."

What else can fans expect from "City of Ashes?" Well, Sigourney Weaver is joining the series as the Inquisitor. Describing the previously-announced casting, Clare says the character is "This badass, scary lady" that fans can expect to enjoy. Although she's sworn to secrecy about any other details for the adaptation, Clare says there's a massive battle on the deck of a warship capping the second story that she's excited to see onscreen.

Clare describes the experience of seeing "City of Bones" on an editing bay in a L.A. studio for the first time as "bizarre": "Even though in the movie they're very different from the way they are in the books, there were moments where I sort of jumped because a certain prop or a certain thing was as I imagined it in my head."

And what about that kiss? You know, the one that happens just before Clary and Jace learn that they might have accidentally pulled a Luke and Leia? "You have this relationship built up between the two characters, then you have this revelation at the end of the story... and it's slightly more clarified in the movie that [the romance] is possible."

Not everything was perfect with that first viewing: Clare says she had some "small" notes such as realizing that the character of Isabelle (Jemima West) went the entire movie without being named. But overall, she was happy with the adaptation by first-time screenwriter Jessica Postigo and director Harald Zwart.

"It was a lot of continuity stuff - I asked them to cut out things that contradicted later books in the series," but there was one thing the author wishes could have made it into the movie: "In the books, the motorcycles can fly, and they didn't want to do flying motorcycles. We went back and forth on whether we should imply they can fly [laughs]."



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