Simon Cellan Jones has had a long career directing both film and television, but he says he gets his biggest thrill when a tricky action setpiece comes together. In his newest movie, the Mark Wahlberg action-filled family comedy “The Family Plan 2,” now streaming on Apple TV, the globetrotting adventure has one knockout car chase all around the famous Montmartre district in Paris, and it pushed everyone on set to their limit. “We were literally driving down these steps outside this famous church,” Cellan Jones says. “When I saw that shot, we did that for real. We drove a little Trabant, an old East German car, and a Range Rover down these steps. And the stunt person came up to me and said, ‘Simon, you got one more, because this is getting really scary, okay?’ And I said, ‘I need one more.’ So we made a deal, and it was even more terrifying the last time.” Cellan Jones and the stunt team nailed the shot, along with several other big-ticket on-location stunts that other productions might have filmed at the studio or by other means. “It’s getting permission from the bureaucracy, the mayor’s office or whatever,” Cellan Jones says. “You’ve got to fill out so many forms and be really specific about what you do. We had another sequence that took place in Piccadilly Circus and Westminster Bridge, iconic parts of London. We had to close them down by putting in a plan three months in advance. Then, when you get there, you can’t change it. So you want to be spontaneous, but you have to have your ducks in a row three months in advance, and then you have to hope that you were right. On the day, hopefully it all works out.” In a world where Sora 2 videos are touted online as able to conjure action and adventure scenes from thin air in a few minutes, and filming hubs in Atlanta and Canada often stand in for locations all around the world, it’s refreshing to hear a craftsman like Cellan Jones push for his work to feel real and tactile. “People always say, ‘Well, listen, we could do this CG,’” Cellan Jones says. “They always say that. But I work with Skydance. They’re pretty cool. They really do like movies. So when I said to them, ‘I want to do all these shots of parkour on the roof,’ the first thing was, ‘Look, it’s very dangerous on a roof. You have to have hundreds of safety cables. It takes hours and hours’ which it does, by the way. And I said, ‘Look, we could do it on a set, but honestly, it wouldn’t look as good.’ And they went, ‘Okay, fine. If you can make it work for the money, do that.’ So they were really supportive.” It’s no surprise that Cellan Jones likes to keep things real, growing up loving ’70s and ’80s movies, and worshipping stuntwork and car chases like those in 1971’s “The French Connection” and 1968’s “Bullitt.” He’s currently in the midst of a creative partnership with Wahlberg, another action aficionado who starred in his last two films, 2023’s “The Family Plan” and 2024’s “Arthur the King.” Additionally, Cellan Jones’ television work is filled with shows known for impressive stunt work and real locations, like “Generation Kill,” “Boardwalk Empire” and “Jessica Jones.” Despite more industry championing for action to be processed through AI, Cellan Jones says it’s impossible to fully duplicate the feel of great action with computer intelligence. “Often I see a big scene, and even if it’s very skillfully done, I know it’s fake, it’s crowd replication, it’s AI, it’s CG,” he says. “A little switch goes in me, and I think even in young kids who watch TikTok, where they go, ‘Yeah, okay, but that doesn’t quite feel real.’” And while effects sometimes creep into his projects for the safety of his crew or to get an impossible shot, Cellan Jones is happy to keep championing reality in even the most challenging action work. “I obviously have to work with CG a little bit here and there, but I don’t consider myself an expert,” Cellan Jones says. “And, honestly, I don’t want to become an expert. My go-to is, first of all, let’s do it for real with the actors. Then, sometimes either it’s unfair to ask the actors, or you wouldn’t get the insurance or whatever. But then, okay, let’s do it for real with stuntmen or really good doubles. Everything that you can do for real is great. And I don’t want to completely shit on AI because I don’t want to be a Luddite who refuses to see the future, but I fucking hate AI at the moment. It’s going to be relevant, but I think people can tell when you’re using CG and AI, and they appreciate it when you don’t.” Watch the “Family Plan 2” trailer below.
https://variety.com/2025/film/features/family-plan-2-director-action-scenes-hate-ai-1236589232/
‘Family Plan 2’ Director Simon Cellan Jones on Why Computers Can Never Duplicate the Thrills of Human-Made Action Movies: ‘I F‑‑‑ing Hate AI’
