Ein einfacher Plan

During a 2002 interview on the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air," Bill Paxton told interviewer Terry Gross that he didn't know that his own father had been cast in this movie (in the small role of Mr. Schmitt) until he arrived at a production office at the start of filming and saw his father's headshot on the wall among the other cast members'. It turned out that John Paxton had written a letter to director Sam Raimi saying, "I've always admired your films, and I was wondering if there were any small parts that I'd possibly be right for." And Raimi gave him an audition.

A funeral scene in the latter half of the movie takes place in the middle of winter, but is a full burial service. In Minnesota, as is the case with other northern locales where the ground is frozen for several months of the year, the funeral for someone who died in the winter would occur in two parts: a "real-time" memorial service followed by spring interment.

Featured in Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: Babe: Pig in the City/Home Fries/Ringmaster/Very Bad Things/Savior (1998)