Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig star in Lifetime movie ‘A Deadly Adoption’

From its Whitney Houston and Aaliyah movies to its “Unauthorized” stories of “Saved by the Bell,” the upcoming “Full House” and the just-announced “Beverly Hills, 90210,” they seem more interested in attracting viewers than entertaining them.

But for one night at least, Lifetime is returning to its glory days of original movies where the men were stupid and their neighbors/babysitters/surrogates were murderous or sexually insatiable or both. Usually both.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Lifetime Original Movie, the cable channel is airing “A Deadly Adoption” (8 p.m. Saturday), the tale of a successful couple who invite a pregnant woman to live with them in the hopes that she’ll let them adopt the baby.

The only difference between it and the dozens of similarly overwrought movies that came before it is that the couple is portrayed by Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig.

Lifetime is being especially secretive about the movie, and Ferrell already threatened (or pretended to threaten, you can never be sure) to scrap it after news of the project leaked on April Fool’s Day.

“We are deeply disappointed that our planned top secret project was made public,” Ferrell said April 2 in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “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.”

Unlike their work in IFC’s ridiculously over-the-top “Spoils of Babylon” spoof, which also came from “A Deadly Adoption” writer Andrew Steele, Ferrell and Wiig seem to be playing things straight.

Or, at least, straight-ish.

Here’s a look: