John Cena and Zac Efron Confirmed For Peter Farrelly Comedy RICKY STANICKY

Five months ago, we reported that director Peter Farrelly, known for his comedies Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary, and Stuck on You, was returning to the R-rated comedy genre with his upcoming movie, Ricky Stanicky. The filmmaker said at the time that he was hoping to get John Cena and Zac Efron in the lead roles for the film, but nothing was set in stone yet.

Now it’s being reported that the two actors are officially on board, and will be joined in the cast by Jermaine Fowler (Coming 2 America).

Farrelly previously talked about the film, saying that Stanicky is a fictional character used by a group of married friends to blame their misbehavior on when making excuses to their wives. He went on to explain:

“What happens is the wives finally say, ‘Hey, wait a second — how come we never met Stanicky? He wasn’t at our wedding.’ Well, he was building houses in Africa. Well, he wasn’t at this or that. Bring him here, or don’t come home. So they hire a guy to come in for a day. They create a bible for the guy, and they pay him a thousand bucks to come and be Ricky Stanicky. He pulls it off with flying colors to the point where everybody loves him. And then the guys can’t get rid of him. Cena is Ricky Stanicky, and if you’ve seen him in Peacemaker, you see what he can do in a comedy. He’s hysterical in a show that really pushes it. I never knew much about John Cena until I saw that, and I was like, ‘There’s Stanicky right there.’ That guy, I love him. His timing is impeccable, and it’s surprising for a guy his size. He’s comes across like a little guy. His sense of humor is more self-deprecating than big guys usually have. I learned this is a guy in the Guinness Book of Records for Make-a-Wish Foundation grants. He’s done like 500 of them, and that’s what he does like every weekend. He’s a sweet guy, big hearted, and that’s what this Stanicky has to be. He’s got to be this guy who’s a fraud, but you can’t not love him, and it becomes a problem for our guys as he starts surpassing them in many ways.”

Ricky Stanicky is being directed by Peter Farrelly from a screenplay he co-wrote with Brian Jarvis and Jim Freeman, based on an original spec script by Jeff Bushnell and Steve Oedekerk. Production is expected to begin sometime this month in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.