Moviefone visited the set of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones along with other fansites. They have made a list of 11 things that they think you should know about The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
Check out a few of things from the list below:
The Plot Will Keep You on Your Toes
As if stunts weren't enough for Collins to have to deal with, she also has to contend with a plot that's constantly throwing new (and shocking) revelations her way. Said Zwart, "We were joking with Lily she has what she calls 'Oh my God moments' every single day, where people give her a piece of information that turns her world upside-down."
"Literally every five minutes, she gets told something that she thought was true was a lie," Collins agreed. "She's dealing with creatures that she's never even believed in or thought existed. She's got this new superhero power with the runes and being able to see people that no one else can. She's a teenager growing up trying to discover herself. That's enough of a worry. Now she has to find out she's a Shadowhunter."
Welcome to The Institute
The Institute is a central location in the film, a safehouse for Shadowhunters where Jace takes Clary after she stumbles into their world. And it's in this setting that Clary first begins to learn about her mother and her past from Harris' Hodge. Harris said of his character, "He's the adult who knows a lot more of her history than she does. And he's slowly sort of drip-feeding it to her, not telling her the whole story outright, so he's making her discover stuff for herself."
It's a location Harris knows quite intimately -- because he's not allowed to leave. "For his part in what's called The Uprising, [Hodge is] sentenced to remain in the Institute, and he has a curse or a spell put on him which means that he's not allowed to leave. And he's given the responsibility of teaching the young Shadowhunters," he explained.
We, however, were allowed to come and go as we pleased, and a tour of the Institute library revealed a remarkable attention to detail. Collins recalled being impressed when she first saw the set: "The second I walked on that about two weeks ago, I got emotional. It literally is exactly how I pictured it in my head."
Clearly, she's got a vivid imagination, because the library is packed with all sorts of artifacts and weapons. We were told the design team dictated the library's basic layout, and then worked with the stunt department to discuss the final positioning -- which means you just know it's going to see some serious action.
Jamie Wants to Prove the Doubters Wrong
Campbell-Bower, however, had to do a little more work to convince both the producers and the fans that he was right for the part of Jace, the film's male lead. He recalled the process, saying, "I walked into that camera test knowing that I wasn't necessarily the person that they wanted to go for and that's a hard room to walk into. That's f**king tough."
Luckily for him, he connected with his prospective co-star right away. "Lily and I just automatically clicked and these two characters just came out of us and it was like we had known each other for years. It was so weird," said Campbell-Bower.
Collins agreed, "He left and I just turned to everyone and was like, 'I really don't know what else you could be looking for. That's Jace.' "
The feeling was mutual for Clare, who said that after watching the audition tape, "I just started to cry, because I was like 'Those are my characters!' It was perfect. So from then on I was completely cemented with 'I love Jamie,' and didn't want anybody else."
But Clare's fans have been a harder sell, complaining about Campbell-Bower's casting online. Kulzer explained, "He had a hard time because, as much as they embraced Lily and also some of the other cast members that we cast later on, the fans immediately went 'Love it, love it, love it, love it.' With Jace, they were always a bit, 'Oh, but he's not a Jace.' "
And Campbell-Bower admits he let that bother him: "I think at the beginning I was very much aware of what was being said, whether it be positive or negative; predominately negative. That's something that you've gotta deal with. I have to appreciate the fact that this is a series of books that people have already encountered and people will already have preconceived notions about who the characters are, and I have to respect that."
Still, that fueled Campbell-Bower to work even harder to prove them wrong. "Of course it affected me. I'd be a cold, heartless and self-absorbed person to have it not, but it made me want to prove to these people that say I can't do this that I really can," he said. "If I can win over 50 percent of the people who said that I couldn't do this or didn't want me to do this, then I feel like I've done my job."
Collins defended her co-star, saying, "What I'm really excited about is for all the people out there that didn't want certain cast members to be Jace or [Jemima West's] part and [Kevin Zegers'] part, I think they are going to be really surprised and really happy." Then she played her trump card, declaring, "As a fan of the series, they encapsulate every emotion I would want those characters to have."
Some Big Names Got Into The Fun
Jared Harris wasn't the only veteran actor to let loose on the "City of Bones" set. According to Kulzer, CCH Pounder had a blast playing the demonic Madame Dorothea. "There is no visual effect in the world that can beat a good actress," Kulzer said. "It's a lot of fun seeing her kicking the ass of Shadowhunters. She does it really well. And she had fun doing it."
Clare couldn't have been happier about the results, saying, "Jared Harris is so wonderful at playing conflicting characters that I felt that he would be a great Hodge. He doesn't look exactly like the character described in the book, but that doesn't matter to me as much as the fact that I feel that he can really pull that off."
Of course, one of biggest parts went to a great actor as well: the villainous Valentine Morgenstern, who's played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. And while he cuts an imposing figure with his tattoos and goatee (less so with the braided ponytails), he's quick to keep things light the second they call cut, to make sure Collins doesn't "hate him after two weeks."
It doesn't sound like she does. Collins said of her co-stars, "With this movie, all the cast have an amazing rapport. Even someone like Jonathan, who is so incredible and so intense and so seasoned, he still likes to have fun as well. And that makes it a really group experience and very family-like."
But It's Also Action-Packed
From our brief time on set, we got to witness some of that action, including a few painful-looking takes of the actors throwing each other around and slamming into the furniture. A tour of Clary's house offered more hints, with breakaway glass built into one of the bedrooms, and padded tiles in the kitchen so the actors can safely slam into them.
But don't chalk it all up to movie magic, according to Collins: "With a lot of the stunt stuff, something is bound to go a little awry, and most of my reactions have genuinely been me saying, 'Ow' and screaming. When I was carving this rune in my hand, the machine that had smoke coming out started to burn my skin. I started yelling 'Ow! Ow! Ow!' but I didn't stop the take."
Still, Collins said she loved getting to do the action scenes, despite experiencing a little collateral damage: "I've gotten so many bruises at four in the morning, all hours of the night, so it's been an intense ride, but it's been really fun."
"Harald was like, 'I don't want any wires; I don't want any wire work. I don't want that. I want it to be very much if you're going to do something, if you're going to do a flip, then you need to be able to do a flip. If you're going to do a jump, you need to be able to do a jump,' " explained Campbell-Bower.
So he put in months of intense, physical training in order to handle his action scenes. "Learning how to do flips onto tables off the mini-tram was really exciting because that's me doing that in the movie. That's nobody else. That's not a facial placement. There's no wires there," Campbell-Bower said, clearly excited. "That's me jumping from the floor onto a table doing a flip in midair, which I know sounds really stupid, but the 14-year-old boy inside me goes, 'That's f**king awesome. That's so cool!'"
And Jared Harris ("Mad Men"), who plays Hodge, a former Shadowhunter-turned-tutor, can't wait for his turn. He joked, "I can still kick ass, man." Harris said of his fight scenes, "We're just practicing them now. But what's great fun is I get to fight Dredger from Sherlock Holmes [Robert Maillet]. He's a f**king enormous man."
"When you do all these fight scenes, you try and jazz 'em up and everything," he continued. "And then I sit there and I go, 'Listen, if this guy hit me, I'd collapse. I'd crumble if he actually managed to actually connect with me, because the man's huge.' "
Head over to Moviefone to view the full list of Things you should know about The Mortal Instruments.
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