Casting is currently at a fever pitch regarding the next great hope in the Young Adult film franchise arms race, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. The most recent news we had about director Harald Zwart’s series-launcher is that Game of Thrones and Mad Men vets Lena Headey and Jared Harris had landed roles as two of the adult characters, and today comes news that two of the teenage roles that make up most of the primary cast have also been filled.
The thrust of the City of Bones story, again, is that a girl named Clary Fray (Lily Collins) becomes suddenly involved in the hidden world of Shadowhunters (powerful beings who hunt demons right under our noses). The first Shadowhunter that she comes across is dreamboat Jace Wayland (Jamie Campbell Bower), a troubled orphan who comes complete with a foster family. Said family is most importantly made up of two siblings who Jace lives and hunts demons with, Isabelle and Alec Lightwood. These are the oh-so-important roles that have now been filled.
First up, coming from “City of Bones” author Cassandra Clare’s blog, is the news that French actress Jemima West will fill the role of Isabelle. English-speaking audiences might know her best for the work she did on the Showtime series The Borgias. The news of Alec’s casting comes from Just Jared, who report that Kevin Zegers, who had a recurring role on TV’s Gossip Girl and appeared in Transamerica, will be the film’s Alec. For those who haven’t read the books, Alec is an intellectual type who’s currently going through an identity crisis due to repressions regarding his sexuality, and Isabelle, she’s the stuck up and glamorous sort who never seems to go through too many crises because she’s a bit too arrogant to care about anyone but herself.
As far as the film’s roles for youthful actors go, this mostly leaves us with the character of Simon Lewis – Clary’s nerdy best friend who harbors a crush for her – to discuss. Erroneously, I believed that the role had yet to be filled, but it turns out the casting of Irish actor Robert Sheehan got lost in all of the hullabaloo surrounding Lena Headey and Jared Harris the last time names were announced. This leaves the casting of the villainous Valentine Morgenstern (the series’ primary antagonist) and the stalwart Luke Garroway (Clary’s surrogate father figure) as the last two big roster spots to fill. After that we should be off to the races and reporting on spy pics coming from the set, or at least keeping ourselves busy by making photoshopped images of which young actors we want to get together in real life. [via Cinema Blend]