Collider
met up with director Harald Zwart to talk The Mortal Instruments: City Of
Bones, starring Lily Collins, Lena Headley, Robert Sheehan, Jamie Campbell
Bower, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kevin Zegers, Kevin Durand, Jared Harris and CCH
Pounder.
“The
Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones is schedule to open on August 21st.
Collider: Was it always a given for you, that you
wanted to have Cassandra Clare be so involved with the filmmaking process?
HARALD
ZWART: Yeah. We had early meetings and obviously she was
curious to hear what I had to say. I
think we just found the tone, really quickly.
She understood that, in addition to making sure that it was an exciting
movie, with all the creatures and everything, I really wanted to make sure that
the audience would understand Clary’s journey.
When a girl sees that her mom is kidnapped and there’s a creature in her
house, how does a normal girl react to that?
I think we did a really nice job making sure that tracked true. And she’s been amazing in understanding the
filmmaking process, all the way through.
She’s been there when we needed her, and she’s let the filmmakers do the
filming, whenever we needed to.
How
challenging was it to get this complex world and story down to a manageable
length?
ZWART: Incredibly challenging, up until the very
last cut. With the last version of the
movie, we were still working on the backstory and trying not to cheat, and
making sure that people who hadn’t read the book, also understood the
movie. It’s a big book with a lot of
stuff, and we had a limitation in length and money. That was really hard.
…
Is
it exciting to know that everyone involved liked what they saw enough to greenlight
the second film already?
ZWART: Yeah!
It’s a privilege to have the second movie greenlit before the first one
comes out. I really do appreciate the
awareness and the hype that the fans are creating. I, myself, have become totally addicted to
checking out the fan art. They take our
stuff and make it almost much better than what we ever could do. I love that!
Are
you going to direct the second film, as well?
ZWART: Yeah, I’m already deep in prep on the next
one.
What
are you looking forward to with the second film?
ZWART: I think the next movie is going to be very
exciting with Simon’s character. He has
a whole journey. We have a very
interesting new character coming in. I
can’t say who it is yet, but she’s called The Inquisitor. She’s a no-nonsense type of woman. I think the second one, hopefully, will just
be able to dig even deeper into the psychology of these people.
Do
you already have a script?
ZWART: Yes!
We’re shooting in September.
We’re still working on it, and I think we’ll be working on it, up until
the day we shoot, but we have it.
…
Do
you think the key to the success of films like this is to always remember the
characters and the character development, and not lose sight of that with the
effects?
ZWART: Yeah, I think so. There’s no great movie where you haven’t been
emotionally connected to the main character.
There are a lot of movies with vampires and monsters and super-great
effects, but if there’s no humor or human relations, I don’t think it’s ever
worth seeing. At least, that’s my
opinion.”
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