In the mood for something uplifting and perhaps even canine-focused? Dog lovers everywhere should know that the titular character of Arthur the King is indeed a furry friend. On top of that, it’s an incredible true story. Plus, with Mark Wahlberg playing the film’s real-life adventure racer, director Simon Cellan Jones’ new feature is already off to a solid start. Jones and Wahlberg also teamed up for The Family Plan after doing Arthur the King, and as we learned from our recent interviews with Jones, he’d love to work with the Academy Award-nominated actor again soon.

A Dangerous and Adventurous Shoot That Was ‘Really Scary to Watch’

Arthur the King is based on the inspiring true story of adventure racer Mikael Lindnord, who met a stray dog along the way of an international competition through Ecuador 10 years ago. Wahlberg has played his fair share of athletic roles over the years, but that doesn’t mean he’s immune from possible injury — as evidenced in the production of Arthur the King, where he injured his knee right at the start.

“That was indeed the first day. I think it was his meniscus,” Jones told MovieWeb. “He told me he’d hurt it, but he was pretty tough. And I didn’t realize it was that bad. And then he said, ‘Oh, I might have to be a little careful.” But then we did several more things the next day with him running. And then I realized that — actually, one of his friends told me — that it was quite bad. But he was great. He sort of powered through.”

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Jones continued to detail this monumental experience in his directing career:

“It was effectively my first big-ish movie, and I was, up to the first few days, going, ‘Oh my god, I’m gonna get found out. I’m gonna get fired!’ And suddenly: ‘Well, wait a minute. No, I love this. This is what I want to do.’ So yeah, I mean, as a director, you want to work with great scripts and great characters, and then the other stuff is cool for it. You really want to tell a story about people.”

Those who see Arthur the King will certainly remember a terrifying scene involving a life-threatening zipline that Wahlberg’s Mikael and his team need to cross in order to finish the race. “We obviously wanted it to look dangerous, and we obviously had to be careful that it wasn’t dangerous,” Jones told us. “But my biggest worry was that the actors would refuse to get on it because… two of them, and especially Mark Wahlberg, have to be stuck in the middle of [the zipline]. And it really was 500 feet above the ground. And I went on a zipline myself a couple of times, and I find it quite scary, to be honest.”

And then I asked Mark to do it. And I suddenly thought, ‘Oh my God, what if he says no?’ But he didn’t. He said, ‘OK.’ And he’s so good with all that. As long as he trusts that you’re trying to treat him properly, he’s up for it. And he was literally dangling off this thing, and we were buzzing around him with drones. And both actors up there were really scary to watch when we were shooting it, let alone in the cinema.

On Mark Wahlberg and Mikael Lindnord

Given that Jones has now collaborated with Wahlberg on two feature films, one might imagine Jones enjoys working with the seasoned actor and producer. “I loved working with him. He treated me really well. He was fun. He was good. He was professional. He’s a great producer. I’d work with him at the drop of a hat,” said Jones. “He doesn’t need to be told how to feel and stuff like that… He wants someone who shares roughly the same vision as him and who loves making films. He absolutely loves his job. And I think that I’ve been spoiled, because he’s a movie star who’s as easy as pie to work with.”

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Also along for the ride was Mikael Lindnord himself, the man who started it all. After completing the famed adventure race 10 years ago, Lindnord wrote a couple books about his experience, and from there, the movie was ultimately made years later, of course. “He’s a sweetheart,” said Jones about Lindnord. “He was really lovely because you could sort of tell that he wanted to get involved, but he was very polite and friendly and gave me some leeway. And actually, I found him to be a fantastic resource. He really wanted it to be authentic. He wanted the actors to know what they were doing. And he worked incredibly hard and was so supportive.”

Possible Family Plan Sequel?

Leading up to Arthur the King, Jones already had directing experience in the athletic-cinema realm after helming some episodes of HBO’s Ballers. “I’m not particularly sporty myself,” Jones said with a laugh. “Also, I’m British, so when you work on Ballers, of course, it’s what we call American football as the main sport, which I guess I do know the rules now. But I didn’t when I started. But it’s about who you work with, rather than what the subject is. You want a great script. You want a good writer. You want lovely actors. You want to work with people you trust.”

Jones has worked with his fair share of acclaimed actors over the years, and we were curious if there are others in Hollywood he’s particularly fond of. “I love Denzel Washington. I would certainly love to work with him,” said Jones. “But, you know, gosh, all of them: George Clooney, Mark Ruffalo. There are so many good actors… They say cinema is dying, but you look at the shortlist for the [latest] Oscars, and you go, ‘Wow, every one of those films is really cool.'”

Looking ahead, Jones is keeping busy with a couple of scripts he’s reading. “We’re talking vaguely about The Family Plan 2, which would be a super fun sequel to work on, I think, getting the team back together… We’ll believe it when it happens, but there’s definitely talk about a sequel.”

In the meantime, from Lionsgate, Arthur the King hits theaters Friday. You can find showtimes here and watch our interview with Mark Wahlberg below: