Sony and Screen Gems have blocked off a little over two hours to show us what they have in store. This panel will feature Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, RoboCop and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. With so much to sort through, we're dividing this live blog up into parts. This part focuses on The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones - due out August 21 - the feature adaptation of the first novel in Cassandra Clare's series. Clare will be in attendance, as will direct Harald Zwart and stars Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan and Kevin Zegers. Unfortunately, Lena Headey and Jonathan Rhys Meyers aren't listed among the panel attendees, but maybe we'll catch a glimpse of them in the new footage that's revealed.
Here's the official description for the panel:
Friday July 19, 2013 4:05pm - 6:15pm Hall HThe Mortal Instruments: City of Bones -- Set in contemporary New York City, a seemingly ordinary teenager, Clary Fray (Lily Collins), discovers she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. After the disappearance of her mother (Lena Headey), Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures. Based on the worldwide best-selling book series. Please join best- selling author, Cassandra Clare, along with the film's director Harald Zwart and stars Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan and Kevin Zegers for a first look at exciting new footage and discussion of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
4:42 p.m. - EW's Dalton Ross is moderating this portion of the Sony panel. He invites Harold Zwart out onto the stage, followed by the mentioned cast and series writer Cassandra Clare. Collins says she loves that Clary is very focused on finding her mom. She's tenacious. She's couragious. Collins says she was a fan of the books before she was cast and it's an honor to be playing the lead.
4:45 - Zwart says the source material is great. The hardest part was to compress it. He worked closely with Cassandra on it. Clare says she wanted to be involved in the casting and sets. Dalton tells Jamie's an "arrogant bastard," referring to his character. Jamie says he plays Jace as a sassy bitch. He thinks Jace has a vulnerability about him and he lets his guard down with Clary. For him, that's his bag. Jamie made him grumpy a lot, but he needed to be grumpy in order for us to feel something for him later in the story. Robert Sheehan talks about the characters in Misfits where the characters' powers came from their own insecurity. The demonic aspects of Mortal Instruments contrasts with that. Kevin Zegers says he tried to create a character and not look too far ahead or make any assumptions about him. His sexuality is revealed throughout the series. He loves the character of Alec. He was super impressed that Clare wrote a character had all these things going on and is still kind of a badass.
4:51 - Clare says she was a demon at Magnus' party.
And now they're showing us a clip. Clary's going to be trying to get answers out of Jace over some strange things she's been seeing. Meanwhile, her mother gets some visitors. Begins with Clary's mother getting a knock at the door. Someone breaks in and attacks her. Clary's with Jace in an alley calling him a killer. "I know what I saw," she asks, and then shows him a drawing and asks why she's drawing this. Clary's mother is in a full-on fight with the tattooed guy in her apartment, and it works because Lena Headey is awesome. Clary's phone is ringing but she wants answers about the drawing. Her mother calls her and tells her n ot to come home. She then drinks something and tells the guy Valentine will never have the cup. Clary gets home and finds her place trashed. A dog tries to attack her. Then the dog splits open and a nasty demon comes out of it. It crawls across the floor and tries to chase her. It has tentacles. She hides in a fridge and torches the kitchen, which explodes. The demon blobs back together and tries to attack her again. Jace shows up and saves her. Wipes some goo on his slieeve and then hugs her. He tells her it was a demon. She doesn't believe him. He tells her the thing he killed at the club was also a demon. They can posess any living creature. You can't trust anyone. She asks why she should trust him. He points out that he did just save her life.
4:59 - Cassandra Clare sets herself a word goal every day and when she's done that she can do whatever she wants. She thinks it's important to get out there. Lily says the most challenging part about playing her character is doing stunts in a tight dress and high heel boots. Jamie says hardest part about playing Jace was not eating chocolate. Robert says his machismo was taken down a peg or two. Kevin says the hardest part was hanging out with Bower. He ate a lot of chocolate and other goodies around him. Godfrey says the hardest part for him was taking his pants off in front of Harold. That inspired some banter at the panel. Godfrey's underwear in a scene in the movie is his own underwear, not wardrobe.
5:03 - Clare wishes she could draw a fearless rune on herself. Zwart says he'd do a direct a hit movie rune. And that ends the panel!
