Netflix to turn story of grandma inviting stranger for Thanksgiving into movie: Here's the REAL story
he holiday season is a time when families come together. As the year ends and the festive season begins, parties and get-togethers are commonplace as everyone wants to spend time with the people they love and care about. In 2016, Wanda Dench intended to text her grandson, reminding him about Thanksgiving. Instead, she messaged a stranger -- Jamal Hinton, a high school senior. A funny conversation between the two soon went viral and started a heartwarming tradition.
If you're hoping to embody some of the festive spirits yourself, you can check out some of these feel-good holiday movies 'Saying Yes to Christmas', 'Welcome to the Christmas Family Reunion', 'Miracle in Motor City' and 'Baking Spirits Bright'.
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When Hinton received the text back then, he asked Dench for a photo as he didn't recognize the number to be his grandmother's. So Dench sent him one, and while he informed her that she was not his grandmother, he added, "Can I still get a plate tho?" Dench responded, saying "Of course you can. That's what grandma's do … Feed everyone."
And this marked the start of a beautiful tradition that the entire internet is invested in. Hinton did visit Dench for Thanksgiving and they shared a photo of themselves together in 2016 and have done so every year since then, updating the Internet about their strong friendship that grew out of a random text. Now have their tradition immortalized as Netflix turns their story into a feature film, titled -- 'The Thanksgiving Text'.
As reported by Variety, the duo is looking forward to sharing their story. "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," they said. "We are so blessed to find a genuine friendship brought together by God from a mistaken text message," they added.
Hinton even took to Instagram to announce the same, with a post that read "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!"
While Netflix has not cast the film or picked a director just yet, Abdul Williams is working on the screenplay. The producers for 'The Thanksgiving Text' are Robert Teitel and George Tillman, Jr. for State Street Pictures, while Lawrence Mott serves as an executive producer.