UPDATE: Within 24 hours of the announcement on April Fools Day, Will Ferrell’s camp didn’t come out and reveal that the whole thing was a joke, but that they had planned to now cancel the film entirely because the story was leaked to the press. “We are deeply disappointed that our planned top secret project was made public,” Ferrell said in a statement via Deadline. “Kristen and I have decided it is in the best interest for everyone to forgo the project entirely, and we thank Lifetime and all the people who were ready to help us make this film.”
However, The Wrap is suggesting that although other news outlets have reported the movie being cancelled, this is just a ruse by Ferrell’s camp, and that Lifetime is still planning to move forward with the movie. The Hollywood Reporter originally had the scoop. Read the original story below:
In terms of epic, must watch, bad TV, this one is going to rank up there with James Franco on Days of Our Lives: Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig together filmed a Lifetime TV movie in secret.
The film is titled A Deadly Adoption, and is a tongue-in-cheek send-up of the Lifetime movie genre set to debut on Lifetime this summer. THR exclusively reported that the film will tell the story of a successful couple who allow a pregnant woman (Jessica Lowndes) to move into their home in the hopes of adopting her unborn child. It’s a drama, but when you cast two of the funniest people on the planet, you know it’s bound to be an unintentional comedy of the highest proportions.
A Deadly Adoption is already completed, as Wiig and Ferrell filmed the movie in secret. Rachel Lee Goldenberg directed the film from a script by Andrew Steele, who previously wrote an IFC miniseries in which both Ferrell and Wiig starred, The Spoils of Babylon.
Lifetime is airing the movie as part of their 25th Anniversary, and I haven’t been this excited for a Lifetime movie since Rob Lowe starred as Drew Peterson. Oh, don’t know who Drew Peterson is? Well clearly you’re not from the Chicago suburbs like I am. If you were, you’d know that was EVENT television.
According to THR, Ferrell has always wanted to Of course, Wiig has already starred in a Lifetime movie before. It was called A Dog Took My Face And Gave Me a Better Face To Change The World: The Celeste Cunningham Story.