Mundie Moms

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The Mortal Instruments Movie Monday #3: The Casting of Clary




Welcome to this week's edition of The Mortal Instruments Movie Monday. Last week I talked about why I felt Jamie was the perfect casting choice for Jace, and today I wanted to talk a little bit about the casting of Clary. 

I don't know about you guys, but when I read a book I rarely picture the character based on someone I know or have seen via TV, movie etc. In the numerous times I've read the TMI series I never once pictured a certain person in my head as Clary. So when Clary's casting was announced I was thrilled that we had a Clary. I'll admit, I've not actually seen any of Lily's movie, but like with Jamie's announcement, if Cassie says she's the perfect choice for this role, than I believe her. I didn't have a hard time with accepting her in this role, as I did with Jace's (though I'm now totally over having my doubts). Really, it's Cassie's world that's being brought to life, so if she's thrilled by it, than I am too. 

Here's my thoughts on Lily playing Clary. Based on the little bits I've seen, on hearing about her passion in playing this role, and from what I heard her say on set, I KNOW she is the perfect Clary! She looks like Clary to me, she has the passion and the drive to deliver the Clary we've all fallen in love with, and she has this spark about her that I don't know, just makes you love her.  I feel like that in away is something that Clary has. There's something that Clary and Lily both have that makes you like them, without even knowing them. Does that even make sense? I can't even describe what I'm trying to say. So for the sake of sounding stupid just pretend you get what I'm saying. 

Now, I want to mention the bits of hate I've heard/read about based on Lily's casting as Clary. As always I will never understand someone's belittlement towards another person. So I don't understand why based on the way Clary is described in the books, and the way Lily looks above (which is from this video she made for us here on Mundie Moms) can someone say she doesn't look the part of Clary? Not only does she have some of similar features I would imagine Clary having, but there is this little called movie magic.... which I'll refer to as make up. Hence her hair dye and movie make up. You can't judge an actor's looks and performance on a movie we've not seen yet, and based on the way she looks above I'd say she looks pretty much like a life like Clary to me. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but in some of my re-reads after Lily was announced to play Clary I can totally see why she was chosen for this role. 

This TMI movie cast as a lot of pressure of them to get this right for fans, and from what I've experienced and have seen I can tell you they will. I really hope that as we get closer to the movie release, and as us fan-sites who have had the opportunity to be on set receive the go ahead to talk openly about our set experience, that we'll allow fans to see that those involved with this movie know what they're doing! They hear what fans have said, they've read the books, they talk with Cassie, and they share the same love for this book that we do. If they didn't it wouldn't be made into a movie. I am 100% convinced that they, meaning the cast, crew and everyone affiliated with this movie, will deliver what TMI fans are excepting them to deliver and then some! 

I'd love to hear what you casting thoughts on Clary are. Are you are excited as I am to see Lily bring Clary to life on the bring screen? Please remember any hateful comments will be deleted.

TMI Movie News: Harald Zwart Shares a Photo

Recently on Tumblr TMI's movie director Harald Zwart shared a picture of himself with TMI's director of photography, Geir Hartly Andreassen when they were on location in Rome before the shoot of TMI.


Be sure to follow Harald on Tumblr and Twitter, as he tends to treat TMI fans with pictures. Speaking of Twitter, Harald announced this past week that he was shooting LIBRARY scenes with Jared Harris!!!! I know, I can not wait to see this library!! I wonder if we'll see City of Bones hidden within the library's books.

Covet Blog Tour: Guest Post- Elements of a Sequel / Giveaway

I'm thrilled to be the next stop in the Covet blog tour hosted by Kismet Blog Tours. Today's stop features a guest post from author Melissa Darnell and a giveaway provided by Harlequin Teen!


What are important elements of a sequel, and how did you incorporate those into this book?

Sequels are always tricky to pull off.  In addition to the usual issues in writing a novel (starting with an interesting beginning, creating likable characters, juggling the main plot as well as all the subplots, avoiding the sagging middle syndrome, and ending with a satisfying conclusion), you also have to worry about the overarching story of the series as a whole.  In a trilogy, that makes the second book (in this case Covet) the middle of the series, which then creates the risk that IT could become the sagging middle of the overall series.   And of course while the second book in a trilogy needs to have its own ending, it still has to leave a lot of overarching unanswered questions and threads to be wrapped up in the following book.  

 Thankfully there are some great benefits to writing a sequel. The biggest is character-building...the first book has to do the most work in revealing the characters’ personalities and background history. But a sequel allows the writer to jump right into the new situations these characters are facing since most readers will prefer to read a series in order and will already know the characters’s personalities and histories from the previous book. So instead of spending precious page space on explaining backstory, we can fit in a lot more action and conflict right from the beginning in the sequel.  It’s also a fun opportunity to introduce new issues between long time and seemingly solid relationships, kill off beloved secondary and even main characters (my personal favorite technique; in my stories NOBODY is safe!), explore new locations, and dig deeper into the secrets only hinted at in the previous book!  Sequels are the perfect chance to play with readers’ expectations and hopefully surprise the heck out of them by taking the story into completely unexpected directions.

 In Covet, I kill more than a few characters, delve deeper into some previously barely shown secondary characters as well as some of the rules that hinder the Clann’s abilities, introduce a new paranormal group or “species”, and basically do everything I can think of to unabashedly torture Tristan and Savannah.  :D


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Thank you Melissa for stopping by Mundie Moms today!



About CovetGoodreadsAmazonB&NIndiebound

Dangerous to be together. Painful to be apart. Savannah Colbert knows she broke up with Tristan Coleman for the right reasons. Most of all, to keep from killing him with her new vampire abilities. But try telling her heart. 

Now, lost in a sea of hostile Clann faces, Sav tries to come to terms with what she’s becoming and what that means for her future. And that someone is doing their best to bully her into making a terrible mistake. 

 Tristan can’t believe Sav won’t even talk to him. If being apart is her decision, fine. Just don’t expect him to honor it. But even as he prepares to fight for the girl he loves, forces beyond their control take them both in directions neither could have foreseen or prepared for. A reckoning is coming…and not everyone will survive.

About Melissa DarnellwebsiteThe Clann Series websiteFacebookTwitterGoodreads


Melissa Darnell is the author of a growing list of adult and YA fiction and nonfiction books. Born in California, she grew up in Texas and has also called the following states home since then: Utah, West Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Iowa and South Dakota. She currently lives in Nebraska with her husband Tim and two children, Hunter and Alexander, where she enjoys watching Whale Wars, Glee and True Blood, designing digital graphic products for the virtual world of Second Life, and of course writing her latest book. For information about her other books, please visit Melissa’s website at www.melissadarnell.com. 

Tour Schedule: to find out more about the tour, and to see where the tour stops at next, please visit the Covet tour page.


The Giveaway:


Six daily winners will win a copy of Covet and one grand prize winner will win an amazing Covet prize pack! To enter, fill out the form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

#Reached Challenge #2: Get Matched


Mundie Moms is part of a group of bloggers who were invited to be apart of Penguin Teen's Silk & Paper Campaign, which is actively promoting Ally Condie's upcoming release REACHED. Each week we have a challenge, and these challenges also involve you! Last week's mission was to add the REACHED countdown widget to our blogs (which you can grab here). This week's mission is to #GETMATCHED.

This week's challenge:
For Cassie Reyes, the seeds of dissent and rebellion were first sown in MARCHED. The Society is corrupt and people must know. Spread the world however you can by:




Read an excerpt here

Become an Activist:
What to become an Activist with us? It's easy. All you have to do is help us promote each week's campaign! That's it! So grab the Matched trailer, add it to your blog, website, where ever and help us spread the word!

The Giveaway:
And for joining our cause, I've got a SIGNED poster of REACHED, along with a set of MATCHED, CROSSED and REACHED buttons to giveaway to one lucky participant. All you have to do is fill out this form, and each week take part in the challenge.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

TeenQuake Lit Olympics

Saturday was a gorgeous day in San Francisco and I was very excited to participate in LitQuake's TeenQuake Lit Olympics. Nancy (from Tales of the Ravenous Reader) and I got to provide the commentary as Team Geek (Malinda Lo, C J Omololu and Cory Jackson) and Team Fearless Phrasers (Tamara Ireland Stone, Ingrid Paulson and Daisy Whitney)  read their prepared stories from three prompts given out by Chris Angotti (Director of Young Writers Program for NaNoWriMo) and Summers Laurie (Books Inc.)

The Fearless Phrasers: Ingrid Paulson (Valkyrie Rising), Tamara Ireland Stone (Time Between Us) and Daisy Whitney (The Mockingbirds and The Rivals).
Nancy (Ravenous Reader), the two teen gold medal winners and me.

First let me say that the authors all came through with wonderful short stories. And the gold medal winning teens? You guys will have to watch out for them in the future. Unbelievably sweet and touching tales. The teens were instructed to write a letter to their future selves twenty years form now. Oh, I could so relate to those letters.
Team Geek is on the left and The Fearless Phrasers are on the right. Summer Laurie (Books Inc) is at the podium.

 
I'm happy to say that Fearless Phrasers (my team) managed to tie it up in the final rounds (yes, the audience got to vote on which story they thought was the best) and we lost in the tie-breaker but man oh man, was it ever close.


Author Signing: Malinda Lo (Adaptation, Ash, Huntress), Tamara Ireland Stone, Ingrid Paulson, Cory Jackson (If I Lie, Touched), C J Omololu (Transcendence, Dirty Little Secrets), Daisy Whitney
The event ended with an author signing. How do you guys like Z Space? It's a theater and a gallery. It makes me miss living in the Bay Area.

Malinda Lo, Tamara Ireland Stone, Ingrid Paulson, Chris Angotti (Young Writers Program Director, NaNoWriMo), Cory Jackson, C J Omololu, Daisy Whitney.
 
For those of you who didn't have to drive back home to another state like I did, hey, today Tamara Ireland Stone and Ingrid Paulson have a wonderful "dual launchiness" party hosted by Not Your Mothers Book Club at Books, Inc. at 7 p.m. at their Castro St. location. Even though, I can't be there, I'm running over to my book store today to pick up Tamara's Time Between Us and Ingrid's Valkyrie Rising. And next year, perhaps I'll try NaNoWriMo. I'm still a-buzz from those wonderful stories everyone read.

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