‘Message of Hope’: Karen Kingsbury’s A THOUSAND TOMORROWS Now Streaming
By Movieguide® Contributor
Movieguide® recently sat down with author Karen Kingsbury and her son Tyler Russell to hear their hopes for their new Pure Flix project A THOUSAND TOMORROWS.
This 6-episode romance series, based on Kingsbury’s book of the same name, follows bull-rider Cody, who struggles with anger, and barrel racer Ali, who deals with cystic fibrosis, as they fall in love and discover why God brought them together.
Like all her work, both written and on-screen, Kingsbury wants her audience to come away from her stories changed, a genre she calls “life-changing fiction.”
“It’s kind of its own genre,” she explained. “A story can be physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. And that doesn’t make it weaker; that makes it stronger. I think it’s really important to be honest, to have flawed characters.”
“She’s created such complicated characters. And Cody’s anger and Ali’s mystery–they’re just they’re very interesting characters to read about,” Russell added, reflecting on the flaws of the characters in A THOUSAND TOMORROWS. “There were so many layers there. It’s so complex and so beautiful.”
Russell and Kingsbury shared how they think Cody and Ali’s struggles and imperfections will impact and inspire their audience.
“I hope that [viewers] take away the message that Cody and Ali take away, which is ultimately be strong and courageous in the Lord,” Russell shared.
He believes that the show will inspire viewers to look at their own struggles and choose to “be strong and courageous in the Lord and find victory.”
“That’s where the message of hope actually is,” Kingsbury added. “You don’t have to stay stuck. You know that if you’re suffocated by anger, or bitterness, or unforgiveness, or if you wake up every day going, ‘how am I going to get through another day with this sickness,’ you don’t have to stay in that place.”
“God is calling you to a victory and a freedom outside of that that will make all the world turn and look because it’s so beautiful,” she continued.
“We hope the people who watch it can experience that for themselves,” Russell added. “That they can say, ‘All right, I’m facing X, Y and Z, whatever it is—fill in the blank. But I know that I could be strong and courageous, and I can get through it with help of the Lord and with people around me.”
Kingsbury worked as an executive producer and writer on the series while Russell adapted his mother’s story and wrote the script.
Movieguide® has yet to review A THOUSAND TOMORROWS and cannot yet comment on its content.
Watch Movieguide®’s interview with Kingsbury and Russell here:
Movieguide® previously reported on Kingsbury’s work and faith:
With tens of millions of books sold, Christian author Karen Kingsbury is excited to bring one of her novels to life on TV!
A THOUSAND TOMORROWS is a new series coming to Pure Flix on Feb. 24, based on Kingsbury’s best-selling novel of the same name.
“‘A Thousand Tomorrows’ is a standalone book. It was one of my favorites that … I wrote a number of years ago,” Kingsbury told CBN’s Faithwire on a recent episode of “The Prodigal Stories Podcast.” “It is about an angry bull rider and a sick barrel racer, and a love story that really never should have happened.”
Read More: Christian Author Karen Kingsbury Announces Pure Flix Series Based on Bestselling Book
Pure Flix recently released the show’s first-look trailer, which has a description that reads: “From #1 NYT best-selling author Karen Kingsbury, only God knows how many tomorrows we have left. In the dangerous and competitive rodeo world, how will Cody and Ali make the most of their time together? Episodes 1 and 2 of this brand-new series based on Karen Kingsbury’s novel begin streaming exclusively on Pure Flix on February 24th, with new episodes premiering every Friday.”
While Kingsbury plans to bring more of her faith-filled stories to the TV screens through her company, Karen Kingsbury Productions, she revealed that she did not grow up going to church.
“We didn’t really go to church very often, I’d never opened a bible, did not have a relationship with Jesus,” she told CBN.
However, her view of Jesus changed after meeting her present-day husband of 35-years, Don Russell.
From the start, Russell championed his faith and Bible. On one occasion, Kingsbury recalls throwing his Bible on the ground.
“I was like, really, this is just exhausting … I felt uneasy,” she explained. “After three months, we had this big fight about it. There was this day, this sunny afternoon — we were standing outside his car looking at the Bible, and I just took his highlighted, precious Bible and I threw it on the ground. And … the binding actually split … we just kind of both were frozen.”
Despite her anger towards God and his word, Kingsbury said that she felt convicted by the Holy Spirit when she bought a Bible herself to be able to argue with Russell.
“I began to read, and it was speaking straight to my heart,” she recalled. “I could hear God say, ‘Karen, you have a choice. This is a crossroads in your life. You can either hold onto your man-made ways, and you can fall apart with them, or you can grab onto my word and never let go.’”
After surrendering her life to God’s way and not her own way, she married Russell.
“We’ve been married 35 years and Jesus is everything to us,” she said. “And our life and our worldview and our storytelling and everything we do is anchored on His Word.”