A Deadly Adoption - Official Trailer - MarVista Entertainment
A Deadly Adoption could have been the funniest cinematic joke of all time. The plan was for AAA-list comedy stars Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig to star in a cheap made-for-Lifetime thriller while playing it completely straight. The plan was to dump it into Lifetime’s regular basic-cable release schedule with no promotion, just so random people might happen to catch it and be like, “wait, what the hell is going on here?”
But someone spilled the beans. Advance details of the movie leaked to the press, ruining the surprise and, really, the entire movie—because it’s nothing more than this single joke. The source of the leak was never revealed, but my guess is Lifetime itself. Mainly because The Hollywood Reporter seems to have been sent a full press release about it on April 1. Lifetime paid for the film, and no doubt valued the ratings that would come with having a new Ferrell/Wiig movie to promote more than the integrity of a joke, even if that joke is the only reason the movie existed to begin with. The only downside was Ferrell being mad at them (which he was), but it’s not like he was planning to make another Lifetime movie.
Where to stream: Nowhere officially, but you can watch a terrible windowboxed version on YouTube ( more trouble than it’s worth, trust me.)
