Prime Video gets rights to Cena / Effron film, Ricky Stanicky.

Prime Video has acquired worldwide rights to Ricky Stanicky starring Zac Efron and John Cena which will commence principal photography in Melbourne, later this month.

The film marks a return to comedy for director Peter Farrelly (Green Book, Something About Mary) and will also feature Jermaine Fowler (The Drop).

It centres round three friends who invent a character to use to get out of tricky predicaments, but they have to hire an actor to portray their fictional friend when their significant others become suspicious.

“We are excited to embark on this new project with comedy legend Peter Farrelly,” said Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon and MGM Studios. “With Peter’s expertise and what are sure-to-be hilarious performances from our stellar cast led by Zac Efron, John Cena, and Jermaine Fowler, our Prime Video viewers around the world are in store for a bit of mischief and a lot of laughs.”

“I’m very grateful to Amazon, as well as Paul Currie, Thorsten Schumacher, and John Jacobs, for finally bringing Ricky Stanicky to life,” said director Peter Farrelly. “This has been a dream project of mine for many years but to end up with a cast this crazy good makes the wait more than worthwhile.”

Producers include Paul Currie (Hacksaw Ridge, Blacklight) via Footloose Productions, Thorsten Schumacher (Crimes of the Future, All Quiet on the Western Front) via Rocket Science, in association with John Jacobs (Ted, Blades of Glory) via Smart Entertainment. The script, written by Peter Farrelly, Brian Jarvis (Loudermilk), and Jim Freeman (Loudermilk), is based on an original spec by Jeff Bushnell (Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Zoey 101) and Steve Oedekerk (Bruce Almighty, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls).

The production was attracted to Victoria through the Victorian Screen Incentive and the Regional Location Assistance Fund.

CAA Media Finance and Rocket Science brokered the deal with Prime Video on behalf of the filmmakers.