Thanksgiving Text will follow up the not-so-good friendship that stemmed from a mistaken text message between Wanda Dench and Jamal Hinton.
Netflix
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Netflix
Thanksgiving Text will follow up the not-so-good friendship that stemmed from a mistaken text message between Wanda Dench and Jamal Hinton.
Netflix
A Granny’s Mistaken Message is currently being turned into a Netflix feature film.
In 2016, Jamal Hinton, a senior in high school, received a text from a grandmother inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner.
Hinton quickly discovered it wasn’t his grandmother, but Wanda Dench still extended the invitation to strangers later to Thanksgiving dinner.
Now, a few weeks after celebrating Thanksgiving together this year, Hinton tweeted an announcement about an upcoming Netflix movie based on the story of their tumultuous friendship.
Film Thanksgiving Text will follow the true story of strangers becoming friends after a text message goes wrong.
I’m excited to announce our new partnership with Netflix. We thank you all for your love and support during our 6 year journey. We can’t wait to tell our story on the big screen! 🎥🍾 pic.twitter.com/0heCmEWMDM
– Jamal Hinton (@ Jamalhinton12) December 2, 2021
“We are excited to share our story with the world,” Hinton and Dench said in a joint statement. “We hope it will inspire more people to reach out and make connections they wouldn’t normally make.”
Abdul Williams, whose works include Lottery ticket, Salt-N-Pepa, and Bobby Brown’s Story, will write the movie. Robert Teitel and George Tillman Jr. will produce the film; Their work includes The hate you give, Barbershop Franchising and Honorable Person.
Thanksgiving Text will join Netflix’s growing family of live-action family movies featuring kids and teens.
Hinton has joined Dench at every Thanksgiving dinner since 2016, and it has quickly become a tradition that social media users look forward to every year. Photos of them celebrating together on Twitter have garnered thousands of likes and retweets.
However, the Thanksgiving dinner table looks different in 2020.
In April 2020, Dench and her husband, Lonnie, were hospitalized with COVID-19. He died of complications from the virus.
Hinton told CNN that dinner was a bit shaky at first, but after 5 minutes they were back to normal. “We just tell jokes and stories and share our memories of Lonnie, so that’s just amazing,” he said.
“We were fortunate to have found a true God-bonded friendship from a mistaken text message,” Hinton and Dench said in their statement.
Tien Le is an intern at NPR’s News Desk.
