The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
At the front on the right is a girl, with 4 more people behind her, each further away. A rune or symbol can be seen in clouds against the yellow sky.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHarald Zwart
Screenplay byJessica Postigo
Based onCity of Bones
by Cassandra Clare
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyGeir Hartly Andreassen
Edited byJacqueline Carmody
Music byAtli Örvarsson
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • August 12, 2013 (2013-08-12) (Cinerama Dome)
  • August 21, 2013 (2013-08-21) (Canada, Germany and United States)
Running time
130 minutes[3]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60 million[4][5][6]
Box office$95.3 million[5][7]

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is a 2013 urban fantasy film based on the first book of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. It was directed by Harald Zwart, with a script written by Jessica Postigo. The film stars Lily Collins as Clary Fray, a teenager from New York City who meets a group of Nephilim known as the Shadowhunters while also discovering her own heritage and her family history. The cast also includes Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Kevin Zegers, Lena Headey, Kevin Durand, Aidan Turner, Jemima West, Godfrey Gao, CCH Pounder, Jared Harris, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

The film's development began when Constantin Film optioned the film rights to the book series. Casting announcements started in 2010, with Collins being the first actress attached to the project. Principal photography took place in Ontario between August and November 2012. It is an international co-production between Canada and Germany.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones premiered in Los Angeles on August 12, and was released on August 21, 2013, by Entertainment One in Canada and by Constantin Film in Germany. It was released in the United States on the same day by Screen Gems. The film was a box-office bomb, grossing $95.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $60 million and received generally negative reviews from critics for its plot and lack of originality.

The film was originally intended to launch a film series and to continue with a sequel based on the second book, City of Ashes, that was in development with Sigourney Weaver set to join the cast. However, it was postponed indefinitely and ultimately cancelled due to the film's poor performance. A reboot television series, titled Shadowhunters, premiered in 2016 on Freeform and ran for three seasons.

  1. ^ a b c d "Chroniken der Unterwelt - City of Bones". Filmportal.de (in German and English). Archived from the original on September 19, 2013. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  2. ^ "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones". American Film Institute. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  3. ^ "THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS - CITY OF BONES (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. August 1, 2013. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
  4. ^ Hopewell, John; Lodderhose, Diana (May 26, 2012). "Cannes buyers bag prime pics". Variety. Archived from the original on May 10, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference mojo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference the-numbers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).