“vita-libri-amator asked you:

Did the movie really get dropped? Love your books! And you, for that matter. Thank you.”

Whoa, so this is inconveniently timed given that I’m leaving the country and I was going to announce that I was turning off my Ask box till I get back in March. Eep.

So, THR’s is a slightly bizarre (and weeeirdly outdated) version of events. Screen Gems didn’t drop the project; they weren’t involved with it — it was given over by Sony to a different division to develop back in… August of 2011, which is also when Sony took Scott Stewart off the project. But yes, Screen Gems and Scott Stewart aren’t involved with the movie of City of Bones. The rights are owned by Constantin, they always have been. Constantin makes movies: they just made The Three Musketeers with Logan Lerman. Screen Gems would have been the distributor and co-producer but it was never their project; it’s Constantin’s. Screen Gems hasn’t actually been involved with the project since — well, let’s just say it’s been a while. (Some people have asked me if this is the news Marlene King was talking about on Twitter last week but it wouldn’t be; she was brought on after Screen Gems wasn’t involved any more so that the new production company would have a screenplay that was more “theirs”. She’s never worked with SG so it wouldn’t be news to her.( She’s probably all like, whoa, explodey-what? right now.:)

Why didn’t I tell you guys? This isn’t really even the sort of thing that people tell me. Constantin owns the movie rights: who distributes it and co-finances and all that isn’t actually anything to do with me in any real meaningful sense. Projects get moved from studio to studio all the time — Twilight started at Paramount and went to Summit, etc. Screen Gems isn’t even the only production company CoB has been involved with, or the most recent. And half the time I don’t know about it, so 1) I can only give out news that’s been confirmed and okayed for me to give out — if I wasn’t trusted to keep my mouth shut about ongoing negotiations they would just stop telling me things period and 2) the other half the time I don’t even know this stuff or it’s so in flux there would be no point saying anything about it if I did.

In this case, I will say:

1) The movie isn’t “cancelled.” This really doesn’t make much of any difference at all except in who distributes it.

2) Lily and Jamie are still attached. I mean, it’s been months since Screen Gems was connected with the project, and L&J are still attached, so I’m fairly confident they’ll be attached for the foreseeable future. Will they be attached forever? NO idea. But nothing about this makes it any more or less likely. And this isn’t news to them.

3) Really, this makes no difference to anything. I know words like “dropped” sound shocking and horrifying but in this context, it doesn’t mean much. I talked to Constantin last week and actually gave them a list of actors I liked for Simon (because why not?), and they gave me a schedule they expected to start filming by (August.)

No movie is going to be made until it’s greenlit. The movie was in development. It’s still in development. That said, Hollywood is like a big pinball machine. Projects bounce up, they roll around, they go this way, they go that way. This is (was) a bounce.