Warning: minor SPOILERS for The Family Plan are in play. If you haven’t caught Apple TV+’s latest action/comedy, you’ve been warned.
As we head towards the end of the 2023 movie release schedule, there’s a renewed focus on big ticket spectacle. That desire also comes with a want to find something the entire family can watch, and director Simon Cellan Jones’ new film The Family Plan pairs both of those factors into something a household with an Apple TV+ subscription can watch together.
Though in discussing the process surrounding the Mark Wahlberg-led ensemble comedy, both the director and co-stars Zoe Colletti and Van Crosby revealed a pretty fun story about a Lizzo easter egg. Here’s how spur-of-the-moment improv and the sibling dynamic led to a musical gag that’s part of this year's rundown of new family movies perfect to enjoy during the holidays!
The Family Plan’s Lizzo Easter Egg Was A Last Minute Addition
The scene we’re about to discuss isn’t exactly a plot heavy moment, but it is included in the credits to Apple TV+ and Skydance Productions’ The Family Plan. So I wouldn’t blame you if you want to keep the comedy fresh for the first viewing, as you would with any of the best Apple TV+ movies. Consider this your jumping off point, as when the text picks up again below, it’s about that time.
During the road trip that sees Dan Morgan (Mark Wahlberg) on the run with his wife (Michelle Monaghan) and kids, some family singalongs crop up in the middle of the action. For the parents, “Ice Ice Baby” happens to be a track of choice that allows Wahlberg and Monaghan to get a bit goofy. As for older children Nina (Zoe Colletti) and Kyle (Van Crosby), Lizzo’s smash hit “About Damn Time” is their go-to song of choice.
The moment stood out to me when I watched the film in preparation for The Family Plan junket, as it felt like it was either a moment of improv greatness or just a testament to the brother/sister chemistry Colletti & Crosby had in play. As it turns out, it was a little bit of both, and I confirmed as much when I got to speak with all three parties previously mentioned.
We'll start with Simon Cellan Jones' part of the story, as that's where it was discovered that the Lizzo tune came up so far along in the process, that track almost didn’t make it. Clarifying how this all came to pass, and the hurdles eventually cleared to make it happen, Jones told CinemaBlend the following story:
We played lots of music, and I said to [Zoe Colletti and Van Crosby] a couple days before, it might have even been the day of actually, I said, ‘Are there any songs that you like?’ And they both said, ‘Oh, we kind of vaguely know the words to this Lizzo song.’ So we hadn’t cleared it, we hadn’t gotten permission, so I just thought, ‘What the heck? Let’s just do it anyway, and if we can’t use it, we can’t use it.’ Fortunately, when we were doing the music at the end, her management said, ‘Yeah, ok. You can use it. And so it’s in the movie.
That decision-making process is pretty indicative of how The Family Plan took its final shape. Starting with writer David Coggeshall’s Black List-charting script, producer/star Mark Wahlberg helped shape the direction of the project into the movie you can see now. And admittedly, a movie where an ex-assassin tries to evade his former employer, while also handling diaper duty, might not sound like a natural family fit at first.
But in the spirit of some of the best Mark Wahlberg movies, it’s that unexpected curveball that was used to mold The Family Plan into something that definitely doesn’t lack in car crashes or parental pep talks. That diaper remark wasn’t a joke either, as Wahlberg’s character Dan Morgan proves himself to be a quick draw when freshening up his toddler.
With an eye for both humor and action being kept in mind, the improv friendly atmosphere was certainly helpful. Part of the reason for that is the fluid nature that allowed co-stars Zoe Colletti and Van Crosby to play a huge part in bringing Lizzo into the fold. As I spoke with both of those young stars during The Family Plan’s press day, CinemaBlend was able to learn the following details about their role in this choice:
“Zoe Colletti: We did have to pick the song. It was last minute, but he did let us pick the song. Which probably ended up being me picking the song. But it was fun.
Van Crosby: Yeah, it was a good time.”
The decision to welcome improvisation onto the set wasn’t a spur of the moment whim either. As my conversations with Simon Cellan Jones, as well as Zoe Colletti and Van Crosby continued, I learned that the “think on your feet” mentality was baked into the structure of this picture from day one.
How Improv Helped Build The Family Plan In Its Early Days
Reaching back to the script level of The Family Plan, Simon Cellan Jones provided more background into just how the fun and free-spirited nature of improv helped further build the film out. However, he also firmly acknowledged that the script, which was a finalist in The Black List’s 2021 slate of hotly-buzzed screenplays, was still very much the law of the land. Here’s how Jones described the handshake between structure and spontaneity:
It turns out I’d worked with Mark before. I knew that he was great with impro, keeping things sort of natural and real, and looking for different bonus moments. But the other actors were like that as well. We had a fantastic script by David Coggeshall, which I loved and really just set the tone very clearly. But we also had a great time trying things out, playing [with] extra bonus moments, a lot of which made it into the film.
“Bonus moments” has to be one of the most creative names for scenes created off the cuff, and it absolutely describes the Lizzo easter egg of sorts at the end of The Family Plan. It may not have happened if Zoe Colletti and Van Crosby weren’t already in tune with each other as on-screen siblings either.
Chalking up their excellent chemistry to, among other things, a dinner with their mothers, Colletti and Crosby found themselves falling into the rhythm very easily. Perhaps the greatest preparation for this plan of attack was the audition experience, which Colletti herself shared through the following details:
Simon especially wanted us to feel open doing a lot of improv, which was even part of the audition process. We had to do a Zoom, where you would just get put into different Zoom rooms, and he’d be like, ‘Alright, this is happening, and this is what the character is. Go!’ and [he’d] just make you talk to people. So us getting along, I think even in that setting, probably helped. And it definitely helped the more we got to know each other working on the movie.
Whether it’s “Ice Ice Baby” or “About Damn Time,” the car ride sequences from The Family Plan show just how creative this new movie got with how it bridges the generation gap. In between big chases, e-sports competitions and learning how to get revenge on someone who did you wrong, it’s easter eggs like this that tie it all together into one, comedy packed bow. And you can see it all for yourself in The Family Plan, which is currently streaming on Apple TV+!
