Sorry about the crap lighting!
Jemima, Jamie, Lily, me, Kevin, Aidan, Harald (the director)
So, @cassieclare wanted me to share this with all of you #TMI fans! The cast says hello!
Aren’t they gorgeous? You all excited, yet?
random casting stuff
In fact, they don’t — none of the Lightwood family besides Isabelle and Alec are in City of Bones. They are in Idris for the Accords and don’t return until the beginning of City of Ashes. So it’s good that they’re not cast. That would have meant changing the story a lot.
Fate, random fate? Actually I suppose, having a female casting director. The people who have the most say over casting are producers, the director, and the casting director, and in this case everyone but the casting director were guys — fortunately we had Stephanie on hand to explain what dudes are hot, what dudes straight dudes think are presumably hot but women don’t actually think are hot, and other important matters like that.
I knew Stephanie and I would get a long the first time we talked on the phone.
Her: What are you doing?
Me: Watching Sherlock.
Her: Martin Freeman! He’s so nice. I cast him in Love, Actually.
Me: *falls off couch*
Her: He and Benedict Cumberbatch are two of my favorite actors.
Me: I think we will be friends forever.
“Cassie when you´ll tell us who´s playing Alec? Please i´m dying to know”
“any good news for the casting of Alec yet”
“Any new idea when you’ll be able to announce Alec?(:”
“WE NEED ALEC :(“
“how much longer do we have to suffer without an actor for Alec?”
Sorry to bother again. Has Alec been casted yet. I keep hearing rumors abut im not supposed to trust IMDB”
“
| — |
Well, yes, you shouldn’t trust IMDB. That much is given. (It’s not too bad at the moment though Aidan and CCH Pounder aren’t listed yet. Last week Valentine was listed as being played by someone named Jolene.) As far as Alec goes, it’s more than just IMDB: rumors are all over. That also happened when Jace was cast. It took a while to separate out what was happening from what wasn’t. I thought maybe it would help if there was a bit of a breakdown of how this works. Casting is a creative matter (the director, producers, etc. looking at auditions or readings or previous work and deciding) until an offer is made to someone. “Would you like to play Alec?” That does not mean that person is cast. They have to want to play Alec. They have to have their agent negotiate the terms of a deal that everyone is happy with because you do actually get paid to play Alec. Or anyone. :) And you have to promise not to run off in the middle of filming and whatnot. This requires paperwork to be signed by everyone. The final bit of casting is the “confirmation letter” which everyone signs and once everyone signs it then Alec is cast. Now I generally know that they’re looking at specific people, even a specific someone, but that’s about all I know while the legal department churns through the paperwork. When the confirmation letter is signed, then the studio will generate a press release. When they generate the press release and send it out, THAT is when I am allowed to tell you who Alec is. Usually until the press release goes out, I DON’T ACTUALLY KNOW the answer to the question beyond “they’re in negotiations with someone.” And I am absolutely and totally and completely not allowed to say who they are in negotiations with, because then I am betraying a trust that has been placed in me not to reveal that, not only by the studio but by the actor (not that they know who I am :D) — it really ought to be their decision, too, about what they want revealed about what they are doing in their career. I don’t, like, want the intimate details of my mortgage payments all over the ‘net, and it’s sort of the same thing. And it is a good idea to wait until things are confirmed, because false reports aren’t helpful. I know Alec is sort of a sore point (and I still feel bad, believe me) because I said I could announce him and then it turned out I couldn’t: There was a mixup and it was thought the confirmation letter was signed but it wasn’t, because the movie schedule had changed (it changes with every new draft of the script) and suddenly the actor wasn’t sure the new dates would work. And in fact they didn’t. That actor isn’t going to play Alec. The scheduling didn’t work out. So. It is indeed a good thing I didn’t announce it then, annoying as it was for everyone at the time. I want you to be able to trust me and so not giving you information that may not pan out is important to me. As of this literal moment, I have not gotten the press release/go-ahead to say who Alec is, which means that the confirmation letter isn’t signed. Which means we do not have an official Alec. That could change any second. But I am not witholding information about who has been cast as Alec to be mean (seems pointless, and Variety would just carry the story anyway because they’d get the press release as it is meant for, well, the press). And I can’t tell you when Alec will be announced because it isn’t planned ahead like that: “We will announce Alec on the seventh of August, at nine am!” They wait for the confirmation letter to go through. Asking “When will we have Alec?” is like asking “When will it rain?” or “When will we have a car that runs on dandelions?” So basically in sum-up, I don’t have an answer to those questions — we will have an Alec, and soon, because they cannot make the movie without him — and I will, as I have always promised, tell you as soon as I am able, and I will give you only the information I know is definitely true. |
Casting news: Jocelyn Fray
Jocelyn is a really fun character to write. She’s overprotective (but for a reason) and often really unyielding and unsympathetic, but she’s also a heroine who saved the world from Valentine, endured a lot of loss, and can execute some pretty badass moves. Moral ambiguity is always fun to play and who does it better than
the gorgeous and talented Lena Headey. You probably know her best as Cersei from Game of Thrones.
I have had an actress crush on Lena for years so when they told me she was cast I did a happy dance and hit Sarah Rees Brennan on the head with a spoon. Actually I would have done that last bit anyway. Lena is amazing and I think she will be amazing as Jocelyn. I am super psyched.
I did say I was saving this one for a boring day! I see I got scooped. :)
Cassandra Clare stated at an event in Rhinebeck that the chemistry between Robert and Jamie was great, and that they had known each other for quite some time.
Apparently the guys are on “pranking terms”.
After Jamie was cast as Jace, Robert called Jamie and told him that he had a planned audition for the role. This resulted in Jamie’s agent calling Robert’s agent and being all “WTF is going on with you and your client?! My client had the role and now there are talks of Robert auditioning for the role?!”.
Boys! Of course Robert wasn’t auditioning to be Jace.
If this is what happens in real life, I can’t WAIT to see that chemistry in the movie!
_______
(Actually, Robbie’s agent called the casting director, not Jamie’s agent, but yes, basically accurate. So cruel!)
In unexpected week-end news, Constantin and Screen Gems have signed on two actors to play Valentine’s right-hand henchpeople Blackwell and Pangborn in The Mortal Instruments movie.
Robert Maillet you may remember as the giant guy whacking Robert Downey Jr with a mallet in Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows.
Kevin Durand you may recall from I Am Number Four
I would not want either of these guys mad at me so I’m just going to say that they seem very henchpersonish to me and I am excited to have them on board the project (and be rounding out the cast.)
ETA: Okay I feel really stupid for not mentioning this. Maillet is Blackwell, and Durand is Pangborn.
Pretty!
Tumbled on TumTum ♻City of Bones release date FINALLY! Set for August 23, 2013. Had to make a poster. :)
casting questions
“Hi Cassie! :) So we’ve all been talking about casting news that includes Magnus, Alec, and Simon, but not so much on Hodge, Luke, Jocelyn, and Valentine. I was just going to ask, did any big stars audition for the adult roles?
— s0muchskill ”
For the adult roles, people don’t so much audition. When you’re a younger actor, you tend to have less of a body of work, whereas if you’re asking, like, Dame Judi Dench (I pick her randomly because there is obviously not a role for her in the movie so no one will think I am giving oblique hints!) she has a huge body of work you can look over to see the vast range of roles she can play. So it is very unlikely anyone would ever ask her to audition. It tends to be much more a “chat with the director over lunch or Skype to make sure you’re simpatico, that’s it” kind of thing. So it’s just not a question of like the hundreds and hundreds of auditions that came in for Jace and Alec and Izzy. (As for Lily and Jamie auditioning together, the moviemakers are aware that the chemistry between Jace and Clary has to be a centerpoint of the film, so that was nonnegotiable, but testing together doesn’t always happen.)
With the adults there is a definite “well, if this person then this person but not this person” thing — like, Luke and Valentine have to be very different. It’s all very complicated with lots of moving parts. These days I tend to be amazed that any movies ever get made at all.
