Lifetime’s baby trafficking movie “Baby Sellers” to star Kirstie Alley and Jennifer Finnigan

Lifetime officially announced their latest film project Baby Sellers earlier today, describing the movie as “a chilling account of the brutal and horrific realities behind the global illicit trade of selling children, many kidnapped from their homes, under the guise of seemingly regulated adoption.” The Lifetime Original Movie stars Emmy and Golden Globe winner Kirstie Alley as well as three-time Daytime Emmy Award winner Jennifer Finnigan and is set to premiere August 17.

Here’s an interview with Kirstie Alley from the Baby Sellers set in which she talks about how difficult it was to play a “ruthless international kingpin, controlling an expansive syndicate spanning the world and manned by subordinates authorized to use any means necessary to procure children for her business,” as described in the press release:

The announcement of Baby Sellers comes on the heels of Lifetime’s hugely successful biopic Anna Nicole, which averaged 3.3 million Total Viewers when it premiered June 29. The 3.3 million number was a 57% jump vs. the network’s 2013 year-to-date original movie average and its most watched original movie since November.

Here is the official Lifetime press release announcing Baby Sellers:

SHOCKING WORLD OF BABY TRAFFICKING TRADE EXPOSED IN LIFETIME ORIGINAL MOVIE EVENT BABY SELLERS, STARRING EMMY® WINNER JENNIFER FINNIGAN AND EMMY® AND GOLDEN GLOBE® WINNER KIRSTIE ALLEY

INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS, CHILLING FILM FROM LEGENDARY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ROBERT HALMI, SR. TO PREMIERE SATURDAY, AUGUST 17

Los Angeles, CA (July 16, 2013) – Emmy® and Golden Globe® winner Kirstie Alley and three-time Daytime Emmy® Award winner Jennifer Finnigan star in the Lifetime Original Movie event Baby Sellers, premiering Saturday, August 17, at 8pm ET/PT. Inspired by true events, the provocative film from prolific and multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winning producer Robert Halmi, Sr. (Human Trafficking, Tin Man) is a chilling account of the brutal and horrific realities behind the global illicit trade of selling children, many kidnapped from their homes, under the guise of seemingly regulated adoption.

Exposing the dark international crime enterprise of infant trafficking, Baby Sellers stars Alley as Carla Huxley, a well-respected, influential owner of a major U.S.-based adoption agency that helps prospective parents fulfill their dream of having a family. While presenting an innocent veneer of kindness and good intentions to her trusting clients, behind-the-scenes Hughes functions as a ruthless international kingpin, controlling an expansive syndicate spanning the world and manned by subordinates authorized to use any means necessary to procure children for her business. Finnigan stars as Nicole Morrison, the dedicated, tough-as-nails Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who believes Hughes is fueling a global business that stops at nothing to find the right child for the right owner – at the right price – and goes undercover to bring her sordid operation down.

Shot in India, Brazil and Vancouver, the two-hour film is produced by Reunion Pictures. Halmi, Sr. and Matthew O’Connor (Continuum, Alice, Tin Man) are executive producers of Baby Sellers, which is directed by Nick Willing (Neverland, Alice in Wonderland) and written by Humanitas Prize winner Suzette Couture (The Last Templar, Jesus) and William Gray.

Although legal adoptions are widely available in the United States and abroad, a thriving black market for babies exists in a number of foreign countries. Incidences of baby trafficking are particularly high in India, parts of Africa and China, where experts estimate that up to 70,000 children are kidnapped annually (source). Between in-country and cross-border trafficking, the International Labour Organization believes approximately 1.2 million children worldwide are victims of human trafficking (source). According to the U.S. Department of Human Health and Services, baby and human trafficking show no sign of stopping – with human trafficking as the fastest growing and second largest criminal industry in the world today (source).

A+E Networks is handling global sales of Baby Sellers.