The Mortal Instruments Prequel Already In Development

The young-adult fiction genre has certainly had a mixed experience at the box office. Sure, Twilight, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games all had massive amounts of success and spawned sequels, but on the other side of the coin there are movies like The Host and Beautiful Creatures that went absolutely nowhere. We'll have to wait until August to see how Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones performs at the box office, but apparently Constantin Films is very confident - as indicated by the fact that they are already planning a follow-up.

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the production company has already started developing an adaptation of Infernal Devices, a prequel/spin-off of Mortal Instruments that Clare wrote, and have hired screenwriter Stephanie Sanditz to start working on the script. Unlike the upcoming movie, which is set in modern day New York City, the sister series is set in Victorian England and follows a new teenage girl protagonist and centers on the battle between Shadowhunters (aka demon fighters) and Downworlders (aka warlocks and vampires). As the the trade notes, the book features many characters who are ancestors of those featured in Mortal Instruments. Three books, titled Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince and Clockwork Princess, have already been published in the series.

We can probably expect that the future of Infernal Devices will be closely tied to the fate of Mortal Instruments, but the studio is already hunting for a director to take on the the project. If you want to see the movie get made, be sure to vote with your dollar this summer.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.