Development After
Scott B. Smith had published a short story for
The New Yorker, the magazine's fiction editor learned of his then-unpublished novel
A Simple Plan before reading it and forwarding it to an agent. Shortly thereafter, Smith learned that
Mike Nichols was interested in purchasing the
film rights. Nichols spent a weekend reading the book, before contacting Smith's agent and finalizing a deal the following Monday morning. Nichols purchased the rights for his production company Icarus Productions for $250,000, with an additional $750,000 to come later from a studio interested in pursuing the project. Smith's
manuscript of
A Simple Plan was
optioned for development at an
independent film studio,
Savoy Pictures. Nichols later stepped down from the project, due to scheduling conflicts with a planned
film adaptation of
All the Pretty Horses. After learning of
A Simple Plan from Nichols,
Ben Stiller joined the project He spent nine months working on the script with Smith. During preproduction, Stiller had a falling out with Savoy over budget disputes. In January 1995,
John Dahl was announced as director, with
Nicolas Cage set to appear in a starring role, and filming likely to start during the following summer in the southern hemisphere or in Canada during the following winter. In November 1995, following a series of box office failures, Savoy announced that it was retreating from the film industry. The studio was later acquired by
Silver King Broadcasting/
Home Shopping Network, whose chairman,
Barry Diller, put
A Simple Plan up for sale. The film marked Paxton and Thornton's second on-screen collaboration after
One False Move (1992). Paxton learned of the novel
A Simple Plan from his father five years before securing the role of Hank. He stated, "...for five years, there was a whole list of actors and directors who kind of marched through it. Billy Bob and I were set to do these roles in 1997, and then it fell apart. That was the cruelest twist for an actor, to get a part you dreamed you'd get and then they decide to scrap the whole thing." In December 1997, it was announced that
Bridget Fonda had secured the role. The film marked her second collaboration with Raimi after
Army of Darkness (1992). The film was co-financed by
Mutual Film Company and
Newmarket Capital Group as part of a
joint venture that was formed by the two studios. Mutual's international partners—the United Kingdom's
BBC, Germany's
Tele-München, Japan's Toho-Towa/
Marubeni and France's
UGC-PH—also financed the production in exchange for distribution rights in their respective territories and
equity stakes on the film on a worldwide basis. Paramount acquired the North American distribution rights. Principal photography began on January 5, 1998. The film marked
production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein's second collaboration with Raimi, after
The Quick and the Dead (1995). She found the weather difficult during filming, as she had to await good conditions to complete the necessary exterior work. Describing the overall look of the film, she stated, "We created a muted black-and-white color scheme to suggest a morality tale, the choices given between right and wrong." The interior of the crashed plane was filmed on a soundstage. A second plane, designed to have frosted windows, was attached to a
gimbal, about five feet off the ground. To match the interior with footage shot in Wisconsin, the art department built a set with real trees and a painted backdrop. Kivilo originally wanted to shoot the film in widescreen using the
anamorphic format, but decided against it due to the lack of lenses available and the film's restricted budget. The soundtrack album, titled
A Simple Plan: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released on January 26, 1999.
AllMusic's William Ruhlmann wrote, "There are occasional moments that suggest the composer's more characteristic approach, but his writing is in the service of a smaller, if still intense cinematic subjects, and it is appropriately restrained." ==Release==