Can there be many more twists on the ol’ “human discovers they’re descended from a long line of people who deal with the supernatural, and lifts the veil on the fact that our world is much stranger than they ever could have realised” story left? Sony’s Screen Gems is hoping so, as it’s just bought the rights to Cassandra Clare’s book series The Mortal Instruments, setting up development on the first in the set, City of Bones.
Jessica Postigo will write the script, which kicks off with a young woman called Clary Fray finding out she’s one of a line of demon-tracking warriors called Shadowhunters. But even as she explores a New York City that’s loaded with creatures she once thought were merely fantastical, she also has to try to find her missing mother.
It’s another attempt to ramp up a Harry Potter or Twilight, but we fear there’s only so much interest to go around – with the likes of The Golden Compass as a cautionary tale. And it feels like a hundred of these books get snapped up every year by studios, only to fester away in development limbo. Still, the concept of a New York populated with werewolves and other odd beasties is certainly a compelling one, and easier to translate to the screen than Philip Pullman’s complicated fantasies, so maybe this one will have better luck.
There’s no word on a director yet, but given that the heroine's called Fray, maybe somebody could con Joss Whedon into thinking it's his character of the same name?