There are the absurd moments, the kind you might laugh at when watching a Lifetime movie ironically, though they seem to be there in their usual context, rather than parodic or self-aware. Yet just because the film isn't based on one story in particular doesn't mean it doesn't share elements with a few Lifetime movies of years past, such as: A married couple tries to adopt a baby, but finds out the child in question is part of a baby-selling operation and is being auctioned off to the highest bidder. It sounds wonderful and ridiculous, a sure-to-be-classic that's a perfect fit for the TV movie genre. Made in honor of the 25th anniversary of Lifetime's TV movie franchise, Adoption is being described as a campy but high-stakes thriller, a purposeful nod to the dramatics of the network's now-iconic genre. Perhaps the most similar of all Lifetime's offferings, The Last Trimester is a 2006 film about a married couple who allow a pregnant woman to move in with them and plan to adopt her child. You could credit Wiig and Ferrell with executing an irreverent brand of deadpan humor. The most nail-biting drama of 2003! All rights reserved. It's likely we all just got tricked into watching a regular old Lifetime movie. Entertainment Reporter, The Huffington Post. The answer is really just this: a regular old Lifetime movie. Now that it has aired, "A Deadly Adoption" is no less inscrutable. It might seem like one elaborate April Fool's Day prank, but thankfully, it's one hundred percent real: comedy icons Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell are starring in a Lifetime movie called A Deadly Adoption. But "A Deadly Adoption" is not really parodying those tropes as much as using them. All rights reserved. 2020 Bustle Digital Group. In 2007, Desperate Housewives' James Denton starred as a widower who's forced to fight for custody of his adopted daughter when her biological father comes back into the picture. Part of HuffPost Entertainment. From Deadline: "We are deeply disappointed that our planned top secret project was made public... Kristen and I have decided it is in the best interest for everyone to forego the project entirely, and we thank Lifetime and all the people who were ready to help us make this film. I can't wait to see Wiig and Ferrell unravel them all. Handout/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images, Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell are starring in a. This 2007 Lifetime thriller is very, very similar to A Deadly Adoption, right down to the pregnant woman who moves in with a couple during â yup â her last trimester. In A Deadly Adoption, Wiig and Ferrell play a wealthy couple who take in a pregnant woman (played by Jessica Lowndes) with the hope that they'll be able to adopt her baby. What's interesting, and clear from the start of the film, is that Wiig and Ferrell play it totally straight. No one will do interviews about it and the project was being treated like a secret to the point that the billboard advertising it counted as news. "After she is released from a mental hospital, a woman obsessed with romance novels takes a job as a nanny to a handsome widower -- and will kill anyone who stands in the way of her becoming his wife." When this movie was first announced, it was kind of fascinating. Questions are raised, suspects are gathered, and secrets are revealed, all in perfect, cheesy Lifetime fashion. I get excited about a lot of Lifetime TV movies, but never before have I been as pumped as I am for A Deadly Adoption, premiering Saturday night. A mom hires a nanny to watch her daughter. While which true story supposedly inspired this movie is unclear, it's easy to figure out which past Lifetime movies lead to A Deadly Adoption. But after watching "A Deadly Adoption," it seems more likely Wiig and Ferrell were bored and Lifetime said "Yeah, whatever, that's fine!". Plus, it's Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig â they would be hilarious while reading the phonebook. A Deadly Adoption About Inspired by a true story, “A Deadly Adoption” is a high-stakes dramatic thriller about a successful couple (Ferrell and Wiig) who house and care for a pregnant woman (Jessica Lowndes, “90210”) during the final months of her pregnancy with the hopes of adopting her unborn child. Robert: “Nothing’s gonna pull me away from my family.” Sarah: “I think we’re … Anyway, if you pull it up on your DVR later tonight and find yourself asking, "Wait, what did I just watch?" Soon after the baby is born, though, its mother â who had started to get a bit too, well, motherly â is found dead. Put simply, if you replaced Wiig and Ferrell with lesser-known comedic actors who delivered similar performances, there would be little to distinguish it from the likes of "Sexting in Suburbia" or "Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life.". Before she starred in Felicity and The Americans, Keri Russell played a babysitter in this 1996 TV movie. There's no twist, no curveball element to disrupt the usual structure. Directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg. This Lifetime movie starring Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell has been a strange thing from the start. A distanced couple decide to take in a seemingly innocent pregnant woman in hopes of adopting her unborn child. So how many dark secrets will be hidden in A Deadly Adoption? While A Deadly Adoption doesn't have a babysitter (that we know of), perhaps there will be some good ol' fashioned framing. A couple tries to get pregnant using in-vitro, but plans go awry when the husband's ex-girlfriend develops an obsession with him and impersonates his wife (played by Tori Spelling, of course) in order to get pregnant with his child. The kind of overhauling rebrand on Lifetime's part looked like a concerted effort to deconstruct and then reinvent itself. A couple who has previously lost their child invites a pregnant woman to stay in their home in hopes of adopting her baby ... but she's evil! Many of the ads and official summaries of A Deadly Adoption say it's based on a true story, but that claim might be part of the humor of it all. Rolling Stone, bless their sweet hearts, tried to make "Lifetime-gasmic" happen, while pointing to the Foreshadowing, Sunblock Seduction and Gratuitous Shower Scene. Drama ensues in what I hope is the all best ways possible. Save for a few line readings -- Ferrell saying pretty much anything can conjure up Ron Burgundy -- nothing seems to be deliberately funny. ©2020 Verizon Media. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! While which true story supposedly inspired this movie is unclear, it's easy to figure out which past Lifetime movies lead to A Deadly Adoption. They go undercover to bust the ring, but don't know if they'll ever get their child. Things go awry when an author (Will Ferrell) and his wife (Kristen Wiig) welcome a … A Deadly Adoption is a 2015 American made for television black comedy thriller film directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg and written by Andrew Steele. This 2012 Lifetime film is the ultimate adoption-gone-wrong story. While neither Lifetime, Wiig, nor Ferrell have come right out to say the movie is a parody, many media outlets like Variety have assumed A Deadly Adoption must have a humorous edge. Andrew Steele, the writer behind Wiig and Ferrell's IFC miniseries The Spoils of Bablyon, wrote the script for the two-hour fictional film, set to premiere early this summer. Any more elevated commentary is absent. The channel seemed to finally be aware of its exploitative archetypes in monopolizing the female-centric made-for-TV movie. (Update: According to a statement released by Ferrell himself and confirmed by Deadline, the project has now been scrapped as a result of reports about it's existence surfacing. Another sweet couple who can't conceive decide to go with a surrogate who isn't what she seems. Look, sometimes Lifetime's own description of the plot just cannot be topped and that's the case with this 2000 movie. Many of the reviews tick of all the tropes "A Deadly Adoption" is parodying. I mean, it's not every day that Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig grace the network with their presence. Oh, the Foreshadowing. A mom hires a nanny to watch her daughter as she returns to work, but when her daughter vanishes, the nanny's dark secrets are revealed. Based on the true case of Carlina White, the movie follows a 23-year-old who realizes that the woman who raised her isn''t her birth mother, and, after an investigation, discovers that her fake parent had actually kidnapped her shortly after her birth. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP), the billboard advertising it counted as news, exploitative archetypes in monopolizing the female-centric made-for-TV movie. Maybe Lowndes' character in A Deadly Adoption will have known Ferrell from somewhere else first. Last year, Wiig, Ferrell, and the movie's screenwriter Andrew Steele (a former SNL writer) collaborated on IFC's miniseries parody The Spoils of Babylon. Well, relative to a canon that includes the likes of "Restless Virgins" and "The Cheerleader Murdering Mother," the setup is simple. It stars Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig and Jessica Lowndes. The TV movie itself is a tongue-in-cheek parody of the melodramatic goodness Lifetime churns out, and there are plenty of previous movies that A Deadly Adoption could have drawn inspiration from. A Deadly Adoption Photos View All Photos (25) Movie Info. Rolling Stone, bless their sweet hearts, tried to make "Lifetime-gasmic" happen, while pointing to the Foreshadowing, Sunblock Seduction and Gratuitous Shower Scene.But "A Deadly Adoption" is not really parodying those tropes as much as using them. The surrogate they wind up with actually has a crush on the husband, who teaches her college class.