Peter Farrelly in Talks With John Cena and Zac Efron to Star in His R-Rated Comedy RICKY STANICKY
Director Peter Farrelly is known best for directing over-the-top comedies like Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary, and Stuck on You. It’s been a while since we’ve seen an R-rated comedy from Farrelly, and fans are looking forward to his feel-good dramedy The Greatest Beer Run Ever that is set to be released at the end of the month on Apple TV+, but it looks like the director is returning to his roots with the upcoming comedy Ricky Stanicky.
Ricky Stanicky will be in the spirit of the raucous comedies listed above that he made with brother Bobby, and he is looking to cast John Cena in the title role, with Zac Efron starring opposite.
Farrelly said of the project and possible casting:
“I’m shooting it in January, and we’re in negotiations with John Cena and Zac Efron. They’re not locked in. I want to make that clear. Ricky Stanicky, I think, is just a hilarious movie, and it’s a great message, not just a bunch of hard-R laughs. There’s Something About Mary ultimately is about true love. There were many times when Ted, the Ben Stiller character, would have just backed off, except he was in love. He gets these bogus reports that Mary has got all sorts of issues; she’s got too many kids by too many guys; she’s on welfare. He still wants to find her because he loves her, and that’s the ultimate message. The message of Ricky Stanicky is somewhat different, but I think it will resonate.”
Farrelly says 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 goes 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.”
It will be fun to see another Farrelly comedy! I hope Cena and Efron get locked in, because I really enjoy both of them. What do you think? Are you on board for another Farrelly outing?
via: Deadline