Netflix is on a quest to get tears flowing, as the streamer is making a movie based on the true story of a grandma who invited a stranger to Thanksgiving.
The Thanksgiving Text follows the viral story of “Jamal Hinton and Wanda Dench, two strangers who met after Wanda accidentally texted Jamal instead of her grandson, inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner. When Jamal, a senior in high school, accepted the invitation anyway, a deep friendship was formed between Wanda and Jamal, despite their very different backgrounds.”
With writer Abdul Williams (The New Edition Story) alongside producers Robert Teitel and George Tillman, Jr.(The Hate U Give, Barbershop), we know this talented team will deliver a moving, relatable movie.
“We are excited to share our story with the world. We hope it inspires more people to reach out and make connections that they wouldn’t ordinarily make,” Wanda Dench and Jamal Hinton said in a statement. “We are so blessed to find a genuine friendship brought together by God from a mistaken text message. ”
In response to the big news Hinton tweeted, “I am very excited to announce our new partnership with Netflix. We thank every single one of you for your love and support in our journey the last 6 years. We can’t wait to tell our story on the big screen!.”
Genuinely nice stories like this are more important than ever right now. It’s also odd that with all the heart-warming posts on the Internet, we don’t get more projects like this. We expect if The Thanksgiving Text does well, there will suddenly be tons of them in production.
Jamal and Wanda have been spending Thanksgiving together since 2016, with Hinton tweeting about this year’s holiday on Nov. 25, “Today marks our 6th Thanksgiving together.”
To celebrate, Dench tweeted about the duo seeing each other on Nov. 24, “Looking forward to getting together with family and friends for Thanksgiving. Jamal said he’ll bring the pumpkin pie.”
So the real question is who do we want to see play Jamal and Wanda?
Have you been following Jamal and Wanda’s story. Will you watch The Thanksgiving Text? Let us know in the comments!