Vacation Friends: John Cena & Lil Rel Howery to Star in New Comedy Film

December 4, 2019

According to Deadline, Blockers star John Cena, Lil Rel Howery (Get Out) and Meredith Hagner (Search Party) have been tapped to star in 20th Century Fox and Hulu’s long-in-development comedy movie titled Vacation Friends. Todd Garner will serve as a producer through his Broken Road Productions banner. This marks the second collaboration between Cena and Garner, who have worked together on the recently released family comedy Playing With Fire.

Cena has already appeared in numerous comedy films such as director Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck; Daddy’s Home opposite Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell; and Blockers starring alongside Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz. He will next be seen in Robert Downey Jr.’s upcoming adventure film Dolittle; Universal’s Fast & Furious 9; and James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad.

Vacation Friends will follow the story of a straight-laced couple that has fun with a rowdy couple on vacation in Mexico. When they return to the States, they discover that the crazy couple they met in Mexico followed them back home.

The film will be feature directorial debut of Silicon Valley executive producer Clay Tarver. The project has been in development since 2014 when Fox gained the rights to writing duo Tom Mullen and Tim Mullen’s spec script.

Lil Rel Howery gained recognition for his role in Jordan Peele’s award-winning horror film Get Out. Currently, he has a number of projects line-up for him including the romantic drama The Photograph co-starring Lakeith Stanfield and Issa Rae; Tiffany Haddish’s comedy film Bad Trip; and Shawn Levy’s sci-fi action comedy Free Guy which will be led by Ryan Reynolds.

Hagner’s film credits include: the black comedy-drama Ingrid Goes West opposite Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen; Netflix’s rom-com film Set It Up; Ike Barinholtz’s The Oath; and James Gunn’s superhero horror film Brightburn.

(Photo by John Lamparski/FilmMagic and JC Olivera via Getty Images)