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Fans buying movie tickets weeks in advance before the film’s release. Teens by the hundreds queuing all day to meet the cast and author on a multi-city mall tour. An inescapable advertising effort. If this all sounds very reminiscent of Twilights and Potters past, then the people behind the upcoming The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones must be in a confident position.

Set in New York City, Lily Collins (Mirror, Mirror, The Blind Side) stars as Clary, a seemingly normal girl who becomes a supernatural heroine. After witnessing a murder no one else can see, she discovers she is a part of a secret cadre of Shadowhunters; a group of half-humans/half-angels who ward away demons from the world they are invisible to.

With over 20 million copies in print worldwide, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones seems to be as close to a “sure thing” hit as you can get in Hollywood. In fact, a sequel is already in pre-production months before the first hits movie screens and IMAX on August 21st. For further ammunition, Jamie Campbell Bower, who has appeared in two of the biggest young adult book-to-film successes to date (Twilight and Harry Potter), is the male lead.

On the Philadelphia stop on their mall tour, I had the opportunity to interview with stars Collins, Bower, and the series author Cassandra Clare.

Before coming here I tweeted about interviewing all of you and my notifications just exploded. People are very passionately excited about this movie. For each of you, what was the book-to-film adaptation where you said, “I hope they don’t mess this up”?

Cassandra Clare: [Without hesitation] Lord of the Rings. They are my favorite books. Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne are producers on Lord of the Rings, which is kind of why I sold them the rights to Mortal Instruments, because they did a great job and know fantasy.

Lily Collins: Harry Potter all the way. I wanted to be Hermione so bad. But it was perfectly cast, everything about it; the depth of it, the feel of it, the production value, the magic. Everything to me was exactly how I planned it in my own head and I can watch them over and over again.

Jamie Campell Bower: And for our generation, that was awesome, because we got to see a complete progression of not only the writing possibilities, but also the special effects. I remember when the first movie came out; I thought that was the fucking coolest thing I ever saw in my life. And now I sit there watching the first movie to the last movie and they have done so much it’s insane. I suppose that’s very cool for our generation to grow up with. My adaptation would have been Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. It’s a seminal novel. I love Salinger. I was very much into Wordsworth and romanticism and all of that stuff and then I read On the Road and it was insane. So when they made the movie I was like, “I really want to be a part of this” or “I hope that they do well” and it killed it. It was an awesome film.

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