The next YA bestseller to hit movie screens will be Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments this summer on August 23. Now it looks like Hollywood also has its eyes on her prequel series The Infernal Devices.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones doesn’t open until August 23, but Constantin Films is already working on a prequel.
The company has thrown into development Infernal Devices, an adaptation of the spin-off book series written by The Mortal Instruments author Cassandra Clare, and has hired Stephanie Sanditz to write the screenplay.
Cassandra Clare has a huge fanbase for her novels. The Infernal Devices series, set in Victorian England, is just as popular with fans as her modern day The Mortal Instruments, which is largely set in present day New York City. The most recent novel in The Infernal Devices series, Clockwork Princess, released on March 28 and has been on best seller lists ever since.
Although it may seem an odd choice to develop a prequel film for a series that has not even yet been released, the idea is not entirely without merit. The success or failure of the pending The Mortal Instruments, might not have a direct correlation to the prequel because of the very different locations and time periods. The two universes, though connected, can each stand on their own. The character of Magnus Bane does appear in both universes, but other than that, there isn’t a strong connection between the two series’ characters.
Historically, Hollywood doesn’t typically embrace Victorian England as a setting that attracts a teen audience. On the other hand, The Infernal Devices isn’t your typical repressed society tale. It’s much more action packed than non-fans might realize. It’s not so much Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre where the women bemoan their powerless circumstances before finally doing something about it. The heroine, Tessa Gray, is more self-reliant, and she is much more reminiscent of the powerful female characters who take control of their destiny like Hermione Granger from Harry Potter than, say, Lizzie Bennet.
According to a feature on Patch.com, screenwriter Stephanie Sanditz is perhaps better known for her acting work in movies such as Kate and Leopold. Nonetheless, she is also a talented screenwriter whose Creve Cour, MO won the 2008 Tribecca Film Festival All Access Award for new voices in screenwriting.
Sanditz’s bio on the website of her Broken Pictures production company she founded with Zosia Mamet, daughter of playwright David Mamet, states:
Stephanie Sanditz is an actress/writer born and raised in Broken Heart, Missouri; aka Creve Coeur, MO. She has just recently been hired to write The Infernal Devices, a prequel to the highly-acclaimed Mortal Instruments series filming now for Sony and Constantin Films. She also just finished re-writing a $35 million action film SHI for Constantin Films and producer Mimi Polk Gitlin with Patrick Tatopolous to direct based on Billy Tucci’s graphic novel, as well as adapting the first of Sean Stewart’s Cathy’s Book Trilogy, into a feature length thriller for UFA Cinema with Justin Lerner directing, and writing the first of possibly 6 features for Greenestreet Films entitled The Mediator. Projects in development include Creve Coeur, MO (aka Broken Heart, Misery), pop-noire romantic comedy, Moving Picture, and television series, Show Me States surrounding the ridiculously dark and dirty world of riverboat gambling.
So, though Sanditz is not exactly a household name, she may make her mark with The Infernal Devices.