Six years ago, Jamal Hinton was invited to a Thanksgiving dinner by Wanda Dench, a woman who he had never met. Variety has reported that Netflix is now developing a movie centered around the mistaken Thanksgiving text one Grandma sent and the heartwarming tradition and friendship that followed.
Wanda Dench had thought that she was texting her grandson but had the wrong number and wound up texting Jamal Hinton instead. Hinton wasn’t sure who was texting him, so he asked who it was. Dench responded, “Your grandma.” After Hinton confirmed that this was not his grandmother, he jokingly asked, “Can I still get a plate tho?” Dench said, “Of course you can. That’s what Grandma’s do… Feed everyone.” And thus, a Thanksgiving tradition was born. In the years that followed, Dench and Hinton kept in contact and got together for Thanksgiving each year since, with the invitation also extended to Hinton’s girlfriend and family. Dench and Hinton’s annual Thanksgiving selfies have always proven to be popular, but the story took a sad turn when Dench’s husband, Lonnie, died in April 2020 from COVID-19 complications.
“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 joint statement. “We are so blessed to find a genuine friendship brought together by God from a mistaken text message.” Abdul Williams (The Bobby Brown Story) is writing the script for The Thanksgiving Text, but Netflix hasn’t set a director or cast at the moment. On Twitter, Hinton added, “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!“