Did any of you see The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie? It was supposed to be a movie that would pick up a fan base along the same lines of Twilight or The Hunger Games, but instead bombed in the same way that The Golden Compass did in 2007.
If you didn’t see it, it’s likely that either: A) the appalling marketing campaign missed you (more on that in a sec) or B) you spoke to one of the numerous fans and moviegoers who damned the poor casting, writing and directing that did absolutely no justice to the hugely popular books.
The result of the movie’s failure was that the production of the Mortal Instruments was put back every time it was due to start until eventually it was put on indefinite hold.
The problem was that the movie grossed just shy of $100 million, which sounds great until you consider that $60 million went into making the movie and then another $60 million went into the marketing of it (meaning a $20 million loss). For comparrison’s sake: the first Twilight movie had a budget of just $37million, a marketing budget of under $50million and made over $390million.
Head of film, Martin Moszkowicz, said in late 2013 that he believes the film’s failure was down to the studio incorrectly positioning the movie – aiming it at children when the readers were young adults – and that they would fix that by repositioning the second one, City of Ashes.
Of course, that’s easier said than done and after marketing the movie tin such a way, it was always going to be difficult to then market the second movie to a much older audience – especially when the first had no real support or high-profile review outlets saying anything about it but ‘avoid’.
Well, those of you willing to give the studio another chance: rejoice! The Mortal Instruments will be going Live Action again, this time though: on the small screen. This is certainly preferable to the other idea that was floated: to plough ahead with the second film, but use a much smaller budget (recipe for disaster!). This time they will be going for a high-end drama – we are guessing that they will look to position it alongside shows that have seen pretty wild success lately such as The Vampire Diaries, The 100 and so on.
“It actually makes sense to do (the novels) as a TV series,” said Martin Moszkowicz yesterday, “There was so much from the book that we had to leave out of the Mortal Instruments film. In the series we’ll be able to go deeper and explore this world in greater detail and depth.”
What do you guys think? Will you be tuning it and do you agree that TV is indeed a more natural fit?
Oh, and before we leave you: it’s also worth noting that Constantin Film and TV said they would be looking at a television adaptation of the Resident Evil franchise too. Well, zombies are hot right now – just ask Fox!
Jennie Ivins
Richard Marpole
Have the DVD & thought it good for a film adaptation. Also, it came out (here in the UK) about the same time as “Divergent” (also very good adaptation), so there was probably a conflict of interests; and yes, both were directed at children rather than teens/twenties peeps, so that probably explains the lack of interest.
Honestly, I enjoyed TMI so much as books I doubted the media could do justice; but as an alternative, a TV series (if planned well enough) will grab my interest (and my money if released on DVD afterwards!)
However, we’re talking niche Paranormal/Magic stuff in TMI, and even in books, there’s a small market.
Hope it works this time, though 🙂
Hmm, interesting. So I watched that movie on a plane, and ended up really loving it. That made me want to read the books, which I did, and wow, I really wasn’t into those. Thing was, I liked the casting. If it isn’t the same cast in the TV show, I may not give enough shts to watch it… Only time will tell.
I didn’t see the film yet, the reviews did help to turn me off, but a TV series would be something I’d be willing to check out.
I wouldn’t say I’m the biggest fan of the series, but it’s always disheartening when these things don’t pan out for the fans. Hopefully this does work out for them.
Tried to read the book. Didn’t go well. The movie looks boring, like a Twilight mets Harry Potter. Jamie Campbell Bowers is coming back to TV! Yes, hopefully.
meets*
[…] Faction offers some insight on exactly why the film […]
I actually really liked the movie, I had read the first book and enjoyed it, though didn’t really love it. Then I thought the movie was good enough it made me want to read the rest of the series.
I always wondered if the movie didn’t make it because nobody knew about it, at least here there was absolutely no publicity for it.
I think there was, but it was at times very young children watch television – they marketed the movie at early teen kind of age from what I can understand.