‘The Mortal Instruments’ will live on, but not on the big screen

Cassandra Clare’s young-adult book series “The Mortal Instruments” is getting a second chance at life on screen — the small screen.

After the disappointing box-office performance of “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones,” the film adaptation of the first novel in Clare’s bestselling six-book series, the would-be movie franchise is being rebooted as a television show, German production company Constantin Film has announced.

“City of Bones,” released in August 2013, starred Lily Collins as a teenager who discovers she is part of a clan of demon chasers. The movie was shredded by reviewers (it has a “12% fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and grossed only $31 million at the domestic box office, just more than half its production budget. “Bones” grossed $59 million overseas.

The lackluster reception to the film put plans for a sequel, “City of Ashes,” in doubt, although Constantin maintained that the franchise would continue. On Sunday at the international TV market known as Mipcom, Constantin film and TV head Martin Moszkowicz revealed the new tack.

He told the Hollywood Reporter, “It actually makes sense to do [the novels] as a TV series. There was so much from the book that we had to leave out of the ‘Mortal Instruments’ film. In the series we’ll be able to go deeper and explore this world in greater detail and depth.”

Success is far from guaranteed on the small screen, however, where budgets and schedules present challenges for the type of supernatural action that would presumably be part of “The Mortal Instruments.”

The ups and downs of “Instruments” also underscore the hit-and-miss nature of adapting popular YA books to the screen (or screens, rather). Other would-be franchises that stalled out recently include “Ender’s Game” and “Vampire Academy.”

For now, however, this “Mortal” franchise has cheated death.

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