The Family Plan is a surprsingly fun action rump on Apple TV+. It stars Mark Wahlberg as an ex-assassin attempting to protect his family on a road trip.
Simon Cellan Jones directed the film. The charismatic director has another film with Wahlberg coming out next year, Arthur the King, which he teased in his conversation with ClutchPoints at The Family Plan junket.
He has extensive experience directing TV episodes like Jessica Jones, Shooter, Ballers, and See, but shows off his action prowess in The Family Plan. The film has huge set pieces, including ones in Las Vegas and a grocery store. He broke down those sequences, spoke about the potential of an action sequence in the Sphere, and some deleted scenes that were cut.
Simon Cellan Jones-The Family Plan interview
ClutchPoints: One of the big set pieces takes place in Vegas, and I'm sure you filmed this before the Sphere had opened. I was just there for a work trip, so I'm curious, do you think that there'd ever be potential for an action sequence to be filmed there?
Simon Cellan Jones: In the Sphere? Oh, my God, yes! Sign me up. I'm available for that!
I'm going to Las Vegas — we have the premiere next week — and sadly, U2 aren't playing there when I'm there, but I'm going to go into the Sphere and see it cause it looks so cool.
CP: Well, if you can ever go and U2 is there, it's definitely worth the trip. I was just speaking to Van [Crosby] and Zoe [Colletti], two of your stars of the film, and they mentioned there's a take in the film of the “Ice Ice Baby” sequence in the car where they're actually singing along that didn't make the cut. Are there any other scenes that didn't make the cut that you'd love to see released if you ever did?
SCJ: Yeah, we had a couple, we had a scene between Michelle [Monaghan] and Zoe in a diner set in Colorado, where they had a pancake race, where they started to see who could finish the pancakes first. And there were lots of little bits that I loved, but you think you've got to keep the film moving, you've got to keep it pace-y.
But yeah, I could dig out a couple of little deleted scenes for you. [smiles]
CP: Another great set piece is in the grocery store, and of course I'm sure you didn't use a real baby in that sequence, but I'm curious how you guys did that.
SCJ: Well, we did use a real baby for some of it. Obviously, we absolutely had to be super careful [about] two things: not to hurt the baby, but also not to frighten it or upset it. Cause you want to look after the people you work with, whether they're 18 months old or 70 years old.
So yeah, we had a doll. We had a few shots where there was a doll there, and then we filmed the real baby in a slightly safer environment. But we absolutely had babies in some of those wide shots.
CP: Late in the film, a real-life video game streamer is in this film, Valkyrae, and I'm curious how that happened. I don't know if she was incorporated when the story was already written, but how did that all come to fruition?
SCJ: The video game hadn't been chosen when we got the script, and we worked with a company called Riot Games, who made Valorant, who were brilliant [and] they were really excited to work with us, [and] we were always wanting to film at HyperX.
I'm not a gamer, so I had to take a bit of a crash course, but they were helpful, they helped us create the footage that worked for the film, and they also hooked us up with iiTzTimmy and Valkyrae, and a couple of other gamers who Twitch stream and so on.
And it was just so good to get those people in because I think if people see this film and they're gamers and they don't think the gaming is right, then they're entitled to complain. It's very important that we get it as right as we can, so I don't know.
So far, people have said it's okay, but you know, I'm sure I'll hear. [smiles]
CP: I know you have another film with Mark Wahlberg coming out next year, Arthur the King. I'm a little curious if you could tell me anything about that film, but also how your relationship with him started.
SCJ: I've worked with Mark a couple of times when he's been an executive producer on things. I did a pilot for a show called Shooter, which was on TV but that was a sort of a remake of a movie he made, and I worked with him a couple of times like that.
Arthur the King is about a group of adventure racers who are these crazy people who run like a hundred miles a day — it's just beyond my understanding — and I was hired to do that and I just got on great with Mark. He was so fun to work with. He's so dedicated. He's very committed. And then I think was already attached to this movie, The Family Plan, and I heard about it and he told me about it and I said, “Oh, that sounds very interesting.”
They sent me the script and I just thought, Oh my God, I have got to do this. So I was just forcing my way through the door.
CP: Mark's character in the film sells cars, at least in the beginning, so could you kind of give a car salesman pitch of The Family Plan?
SCJ: [claps hands] You are going to love this movie. It's fantastic. It's very, very low mileage, it's in great condition and it's got very, very few owners.
But I think all you can do is take it on a huge, long test drive. I would say just about 110 minutes. You are going to buy this car. [smiles]
The Family Plan will be released on December 15 on Apple TV+.
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