16/05/2013 - Norwegian Hollywood director Harald Zwart has signed for the first two installments in the new action adventure drama franchise from US author Cassandra Clare's novels

Whenever Norwegian Hollywood director Harald Zwart is ready with a new film, next time The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones – which will be screened to buyers in Cannes – it will always be previewed at the local cinema in his home-town of Fredrikstad. “It is in the contract,” he said. (He also used to sneak a banner from the soccer club, the FFK-Frederikstad Fotballklubb, into his American movies).

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones - the first adaption of US author Cassandra Clare’s series of novels, an action adventure drama starring Lena Headey, Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower - will be released in the US on August 23, and according to Norway’s Aftenposten, Zwart has already been signed to shoot the sequel in the franchise, The Mortal Instruments: Infernal Devices, with Collins and Bower confirmed for the cast.

Clare’s five books have so far sold 20 million copies worldwide – and creating a franchise, addressing the same audiences as The Twilight Saga and Harry Potter – “is what all filmmakers are dreaming of, but few get the chance to do,” explained Zart, who chose a Norwegian cinematographer, Geir Hartly Andreassen, to film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Andreassen’s most recent assignment was Norwegian directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning’s Oscar-nominated  action-adventure, Kon-Tiki.

Born in the Netherlands to a Norwegian mother and Dutch father, Zwart grew up in Frederikstad; educated at Amsterdam’s Film and Television Academy, he started making commercials and music videos – his feature debut was Commander Hamilton (Sweden/1998), which led to an invite from Hollywood to direct One Night at McCools (2001). Among his US productions, the Karate Kid (2010) grossed a total of €277 million.