Thursday, October 24, 2013

"Back to the drawing board," say EP Moszkowicz on 'City of Ashes' project

Variety reports no director connected to TMI sequel at this time

TMI Director Harald Zwart at the Toronto premiere
Yesterday, Shadowhunters worldwide breathed a collective sigh of relief when The Hollywood Reporter shared news from Martin Moszkowicz, executive producer of The Mortal Instruments, that the sequel, City of Ashes, would start filming in 2014. Now, Variety has an exclusive of their own.

At this time, executives at Constantin are working to fix all the mistakes they felt were made in the first film. City of Ashes production came to a screeching halt amid tepid ticket sales, causing Hollywood insiders and fans alike to wonder if the follow up film would even be made. The first real surprise in this new article is that Harald Zwart is not connected to the sequel at the moment, but they are in talks with him. 

”We are talking to him and others. At the moment there is no director attached,” Moszkowicz said. ”It also depends on his professional availability of course.”

Even though there may be many changes coming, the one fact holds true. Moszkowicz believes in the work of TMI author, Cassandra Clare. “We believe strongly in her and the world that she has brought to the readers, but we feel that the movie obviously under-performed. Something was wrong there, and we are trying to make it right the next time,” Moszkowicz said.

Changes to the marketing strategy are in the cards, including the target demo. “Maybe we have targeted too young an audience,” he said. “They are very outspoken, especially in the social media world; they are extremely active. But the readers of the books are from 14 to 34 — that’s the main age group — and maybe some of them had issues with how it was marketed. We need to go behind that, and find out exactly what it was.

“It is an ongoing discussion that we are having, and it is not done. We haven’t made a final decision. But we will only move forward — and we plan to move forward — when we feel we are going to get it right,” Moszkowicz said.

Although the intention is to shoot the film sometime next year, it is not carved in stone.

“That is the plan, but it is not a given,” Moszkowicz said. “We believe in that franchise, and we would like to do that, but we need to get it right.”

What do you think of this latest revelation? Would you like to see Harald Zwart return as director or do you have someone else in mind to take the project? Share your thoughts below.

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