The sweet story became a social media sensation, so the streaming company moved quickly to start developing it as one of its original movies.
They say that reality is stranger than fiction. The truth is that both need each other: stories are born in one and then transferred to the other. Nowadays, it seems that we see more stories being born on social media or streaming channels to then have an effect in the real world. However, every once in a while, a story that is outside the world of series and movies ends up inspiring an original production.
Jamal Hinton
This was the case with the story of Jamal Hinton and Wanda Dench, a 22-year-old who has been visiting the 60-plus woman every Thanksgiving for six years, all because of a misunderstanding.
Jamal Hinton
The origin of the story was in a text message Jamal received one morning when Thanksgiving was coming up. The message said that it was his grandmother and she wanted to know if he was going to attend the family celebration. Jamal assured her that she had the wrong number but jokingly added that he would happily attend anyway.
Jamal Hinton
After a very good first experience, the bond between Jamal and Wanda only grew stronger.
Jamal Hinton
The young man continued to attend Thanksgiving for the next five years, being there for Wanda even when her husband passed away. This touching story, which directly represents what the affection that Thanksgiving is all about in America, caught the attention of none other than Netflix, who contacted Jamal to talk to him about his story and its potential to jump to the small screen.
That’s how plans were born for The Thanksgiving Text, a film that is already in production.
Jamal Hinton
Jamal compartió las noticias por su Twitter:
«We are excited to share our story with the world. We hope it inspires more people to reach out and make connections they wouldn’t normally make.»
-Jamal Hinton via Twitter–
Jamal Hinton
The truth is, the movie itself could even tell the story of how the text message ended up getting the attention of the streaming channel. As we said before, good stories today have the ability to jump from reality to fiction, and vice versa, without any problem.