Zac Efron Hires John Cena in Prime Video Movie – The Hollywood Reporter

Zac Efron and John Cena in the trailer for “Ricky Stanicky”.

Courtesy of Prime Video

John Cena is the best friend Zac Efron never had in the Prime Video comedy premiere Ricky Stanicki.

Peter Farrelly directed the Amazon MGM Studios film, which begins streaming March 7. The film follows Dean (Efron) and two friends who create an imaginary friend named Ricky Stanicki to be the person responsible for a childhood prank gone wrong. The three buddies continue to attribute their mishaps over the years to the non-existent friend until they finally decide to hire a struggling actor known as “Rock Hard” Rod (Cena) to portray Ricky when their partners want to meet him.

“Ricky Stanicki is not real,” Efron tells Cena, who seems to be taking things too far. This leads Cena to explain why he wanted to continue playing the role: “My job was bad, and I didn’t have friends. But now I have all these things.

Jermaine Fowler, Andrew Santino, Lex Scott Davis, Anja Savcik, Jeff Ross and William H. Macy round out the cast. Farrelly, whose recent directorial credits include The greatest beer race ever And Oscar winner Green bookdirected from a screenplay credited to Farrelly, Jeff Bushell, Brian Jarvis, James Lee Freeman, Pete Jones, and Mike Cerrone.

Ricky Stanicki It has undergone a long development process. Bushell’s original script hit The Blacklist in 2010, and the project previously had stars like James Franco and Jim Carrey attached to play the titular role.

Efron received plaudits for his role in last year’s film Iron claw. Cena has appeared in a wide range of 2023 film titles including Fast x, Barbie And Vacation friends 2and he has a role in the spy comedy next month Argyle.