It’s been 14 years since there was an award for “Ricky Stanicky”. After being repeatedly redeveloped with different stars, the action comedy can now be streamed on Amazon Prime Video with John Cena and Zac Efron.
In 2010, “Ricky Stanicky” ended up on the so-called Black List. Year after year, Hollywood executives choose the best scripts that no one has yet made into a film. But it was clear that this award should be quickly followed by a feature film. It was developed with James Franco in the title role. When he dropped out, Joaquin Phoenix was on board a short time later, before Jim Carrey was decided on as the leading actor. The script was even rewritten to better suit the Canadian “Ace Ventura” star with the uniquely flexible facial muscles. But once again production came to nothing.
For years, the project seemed to languish in development hell forever before “There’s Something About Mary” and “Green Book” director Peter Farrelly took on the film in 2022. Since Carrey is now very rare in front of the camera, there was no “Dumb and Dumber” reunion. Instead, Farrelly found a new actor for the lead role in former wrestler John Cena and also brought Zac Efron on board, with whom he had just filmed “The Greatest Beer Run Ever”.
A short time later, Amazon Prime Video also got involved, which finally made it clear that this time it would actually be realized – even if no longer for the cinema, but for the streaming service. After Peter Farrelly worked on an extensive revision of the script with two other writers and then shot the film in Australia, “Ricky Stanicky” can finally be streamed on Amazon Prime Video from today.
“Ricky Stanicky” bei Amazon Prime Video*
A fictional friend causes a stir: This is “Ricky Stanicky”
Ricky Stanicky doesn’t exist. Dean (Zac Efron), Wes (Jermaine Folwer) and JT (Andrew Santino) invented their supposed best friend from school in order to create space in their relationships. Because what’s the best excuse for a boys’ weekend together than to say that you have to support a friend in great need and with his cancer? But when their partners discover the lie after all these years and finally want to get to know Ricky Stanicky, the trio is faced with a problem.
The solution: They hire fallen wannabe actor Rod (John Cena) to play Ricky Stanicky for a weekend. But Rod not only causes an incredible amount of chaos immediately after his arrival, but soon he doesn’t want to stop being Ricky Stanicky – especially not when Dean’s boss Ted Summerhayes (William H. Macy), the hands-on doer he is so fond of heard a lot of good things, offered a permanent job…
Vote now for your Oscar favorites
As a streaming-only release, “Ricky Stanicky” will unfortunately not be able to add an Oscar nomination to its former Black List award for best screenplay in the future. Only films with a theatrical release are eligible for this. This year these include, of course, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”. What are your favorites actually? This is what we want to know from you together with Moviepilot. You can therefore vote in ten categories to see who should win the coveted golden boy at the award ceremony in a few days.
After the award ceremony, you can check the site on March 11, 2024 to see who the film fans from Moviepilot & FILMSTARTS awarded the coveted Golden Boys and how that might differ from the Academy’s decisions.
*The link to the Amazon offer is a so-called affiliate link. If you purchase through this link, we will receive a commission.