Tag: Simon Cellan Jones

After a decorated career in television, The Family Plan director Simon Cellan Jones has returned to feature films for the first time in two-plus decades. 

Cellan Jones’ feature career began with 2000’s Some Voices, a British drama starring a still emerging Daniel Craig, and he soon followed that up with 2002’s The One and Only, before spending another two decades in television, helming episodes of How to Make It in America, Treme, Jessica Jones, Boardwalk Empire, Ballers and Shooter. Four of the aforementioned shows were executive produced by Mark Wahlberg, and when the actor needed a filmmaker to direct March 2024’s Arthur the King during the pandemic, he gave Cellan Jones a second go-round in the feature space. The shoot went well, so well that after Cellan Jones locked picture, he quickly started prepping their current Apple TV+ release, The Family Plan. 

The action-comedy centers around Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan’s characters’ suburban family, as they’re forced to go on the run when Wahlberg’s Dan Morgan, a former government assassin, has his cover blown. Monaghan, whose character Jessica is unaware of her husband’s past life, played a similar role alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 3, but she and Cellan Jones were determined to make her more active in this story than she was in the beloved spy franchise.

“Instead of getting an actress to play second fiddle as the wife part, [Monaghan] rose to the challenge and made herself, in a lovely way, an equal part of the movie,” Cellan Jones tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I wanted all the family members to have equal involvement in a piece that’s about something and not just be a gratuitous star vehicle.”

Cellan Jones is also looking ahead to March’s release of Arthur the King, which chronicles the true story of an adventure racer who bonds with a stray dog during an endurance challenge. Based on Mikael Lindnord’s life and memoir, Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home, the film’s production ended up being rather therapeutic for Lindnord.

“We had Mikael Lindnord, the co-writer of the memoir, on set, and tragically, just before we started shooting, the real dog died of old age,” Cellan Jones says. “So he was heartbroken, but it was wonderful for Mikael to see the film being made before his very eyes because it sort of brought the dog back.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Cellan Jones (pronounced Keth-lan Jones) also discusses his memories of working with a 31-year-old Craig, as well as reuniting Monaghan with fellow Mission: Impossible 3 co-star Maggie Q in The Family Plan.

So how does one end up directing back-to-back Mark Walhberg movies?

I don’t know, but I’m pretty happy about it. The film we did before The Family Plan, Arthur the King, is coming out in March, and it’s a slightly smaller movie. It was one of those movies where I knew Mark a little bit, and I knew people who worked with him, but we’d never done anything. It was the time of the pandemic, things got a bit crazy and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for Arthur the King. They needed someone urgently, and I was there. So we started working together, and I just loved it. I love working with someone as good as Mark. I don’t want to sound like too much of a fanboy, but he’s a movie star for a reason. He’s also just utterly brilliant to work with. He’s fun, applied and committed, so I was blessed. And then with The Family Plan, perhaps I knew him a bit better, and while I don’t know if I was the first choice, they were more interested in working with me. And I had so much fun on this film because it’s a bit more daunting. It had a much bigger budget than I’d worked with before, but after a few weeks, I went, “Wait a minute, I can do this.” So I just loved it. 

Did you basically lock picture on Arthur the King and immediately start prepping The Family Plan?

Pretty much, yeah. It was quite rapid, but you don’t turn down opportunities like this.

You directed on multiple shows that Wahlberg executive produced, starting with How to Make It in America and Boardwalk Empire. Did you encounter each other on any of those sets?

Absolutely. I met him a few times, and we were friendly. We’d say hi, but I didn’t know him well at all. He works on so many things, and we passed like ships in the night. But these films were a chance to get to know him properly.

Mark said not too long ago that he’s planning to dial back his output, but considering that you just made two movies with him, did you get any sense that he’s slowing down anytime soon? 

No, I would still class him as the hardest working man in showbiz. He is an entrepreneur. He does all sorts of stuff like that. He is working a lot in the city of Las Vegas, and he’s really excited about making more films there. So maybe he will ration himself, but I’ve not seen any sign of a slowdown.

The Family Plan and Arthur the King are your first features in two-plus decades. Did you just get comfortable on television and not really make any further overtures in the feature world? 

No, I did. I just landed into that thing where I was doing well in TV. The films I made were good, but they were quite small. So perhaps I didn’t quite catch on in those days, but while not everyone gets a second chance, I did this time and I’m relishing it. I’m more confident, more excited and not taking anything for granted. So I’m up to this challenge, and I’m excited to work in this field a little bit more. I’m not assuming I will, but I’m ready to grab the bigger budget films by the horns.

This movie isn’t the first time Michelle Monaghan has played a woman who’s unknowingly married to a secret agent of sorts. Did she have a laugh about this?

She will have a laugh about everything, but she’s really good here. Instead of getting an actress to play second fiddle as the wife part, she rose to the challenge and made herself, in a lovely way, an equal part of the movie. One of the strengths of the film is the chemistry and the relationship between her and Mark.

Yeah, Michelle’s character is more active than she was in the Mission: Impossible franchise. She also has the best line of the movie: “There’s nine other events …”

Yeah, it really was [a priority]. It’s an entertaining film. It’s an action movie and comedy, but I do think it’s a film that studies family. It’s not done in a pretentious way, but it’s a film that examines what it’s like to be part of a family, not only the cool stuff, but the boring habits. I know we’ve got a high-concept premise here, but Mark’s character is a contentedly bored suburban father who does the school run and stuff like that. And when we first meet the family, they’re a little dysfunctional and they don’t communicate very well. So that’s why I wanted all the family members to have equal involvement in a piece that’s about something and not just be a gratuitous star vehicle.

To close out the Mission: Impossible 3 talk, you also reunited Michelle with Maggie Q. Did they comment on this at the time?

They certainly did, and I recently worked with Keri Russell, who was also in Mission: Impossible 3. So we exchanged texts about how great it would be to get the three of them together in the same project again.

Wahlberg’s character has a fight scene in a grocery story while carrying his baby. Did the baby do their own stunts?

The baby did a lot of her own stunts, but that was one of those scenes where we got away with it. When we shot it, I was going, “Oh my God, this is going to be a disaster.” And the baby, quite reasonably, did not really appreciate being strapped to somebody and then flying around a supermarket with somebody looking like he was trying to hit her. So we had to be very patient there, but that’s mostly real footage of the baby. There’s very little CG and very little tricky photography.

Did the insurance agent loosen their tie and pour themselves a drink prior to this sequence? 

(Laughs.) Well, they would have, but I’m a big believer in protecting your actors, whether they’re in their forties or 18 months. So the baby was very much our priority, and Max was played by twins [Iliana and Vienna Norris], as is often the case. One of them enjoyed the work more than the other, but they were both film stars in the end.

How complicated is it to shoot in Vegas? 

Well, it was great, actually. A lot of people don’t realize it, but Las Vegas is a pretty film-friendly town. Their business is excitement and entertainment, and they love a show of any kind. But it’s a lot of work because there’s literally millions of tourists there the whole time. So the city, the MGM and the casinos we worked with were super supportive. Of course, Mark is also a Las Vegas resident and that carries a lot of weight. If you mention his name, it opens a lot of doors.

You also shot the third act at that really cool Marriott Marquis in Atlanta. It’s been a popular location the last decade (The Hunger Games 2 and 3, Loki, Flight), but it always stands out.

Yeah, the architect, John C. Portman Jr., designed many buildings like that, and they’re crazy. The whole interior of that hotel is absolutely a set. There’s no CG involved at all, and it’s just a spectacular location.

On your first feature, Some Voices (2000), you directed Daniel Craig at an embryonic stage of his career. Your movie was only the second time he’d had top billing, I believe. What memory has stuck with you the most from those days? 

Well, funnily enough, I’d worked with him shortly before that on a big, big TV show called Our Friends in the North, where he was even more embryonic. I still see him, but he’s pretty much the same as he’s always been. He’s obviously this megastar now from Bond and everything else, but what struck me about him was that he’s a real sweetheart. He doesn’t really want to be a showoff or get too flash. I love actors like him who love to work and come to set committed, and Mark was the same way. So I’ve only got happy memories of Daniel Craig, and I’m so, so pleased that he became so successful. It’s really deserved.

Another one of the Wahlberg-produced shows you directed on was Ballers. Are you the least bit surprised that John David Washington reached the next level? 

No, and that’s another guy with a lot of humility. He’s got a famous dad, but you wouldn’t know it. He would never even mention it or talk about it. He was kind of quiet, but he was a sweetheart on set. He was just born with that kind of charisma, so I’m not surprised that he’s gone on to great, great things.

You also directed two episodes of Jessica Jones, and I always noticed how much attention that show devoted to doors, whether that was shots of doors opening and closing or shots through doors or with doorways clearly visible. Was that part of the defined visual grammar of the show? Was it openly discussed?

It was gently mentioned, and sometimes, you don’t need to give a director much of an idea for them to embrace it. So it just became one of the motifs of that show. It was because the main character lives on two sides of the same door. So I guess that was the reasoning, but that was a cool and fun show to work on, and it’s always lovely to shoot in New York.

And lastly, what’s the elevator pitch for Arthur the King?

It’s a totally different film than The Family Plan. I’d call it an adventure film. Mark Wahlberg plays a top-level adventure racer. They are these crazy guys who run three marathons a day for a week. He’s at the top level, but he’s never won a big race. So this is his last chance to win, and once he’s in a jungle, he meets a dog. It’s a dog movie. But what I love about this film is that it’s not only heartwarming, but it’s tough and gritty as well. It’s about a man and a dog who need each other. They’re both looking for something and they find it in each other. 

And it’s based on a true story [Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home]. In fact, we had Mikael Lindnord, the co-writer of the memoir, on set, and tragically, just before we started shooting, the real dog died of old age. So he was heartbroken, but it was wonderful for Mikael to see the film being made before his very eyes because it sort of brought the dog back. Not everyone is a dog person, but I am. I’ve got three, and even though they drive me crazy, they mean an awful lot.

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The Family Plan is now streaming on Apple TV+.