By Michaela Gordoni
Michael Todd’s bestseller, Relationship Goals, is coming to the big screen, and he told us all about it.
“It was actually really cool because I got to initiate the idea with [producer DeVon Franklin]. The main character, Leah, and one of the other characters, Brenda, I had written those names down before me and DeVon ever talked,” the pastor and author explained to Movieguide® this week.
“This is a culmination from a message to a book, and I wrote down that it was gonna be a movie. And so I started working on the script, and luckily they brought in some better writers,” he joked.
Todd still got to be very involved in the story.
“And my big thing was like I wanted to make a movie that was real. And all of the testimonies and stories that I’ve heard of people that have read this book and how it’s changed their lives, I wanted to encapsulate that somehow in a real-life movie,” he said. “And the team did an amazing job.”
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Relationship Goals: How to Win at Dating, Marriage, and Sex is a New York Times Best Seller and is in the top 100 marriage books on Amazon.
The movie’s synopsis reads, “When TV producer Leah Caldwell aims to become the first woman running New York’s top morning show, her ex Jarrett Roy competes for the same role. He claims to be changed by the book ‘Relationship Goals,’ which becomes a theme as her friends explore the book’s wisdom too. Leah stays focused on her career-until chemistry with her ex challenges her priorities.”
A theme in the movie and in Todd’s book is that relational and spiritual growth happen at the same time.
“I think a lot of times we, um, try to live this life where we are disintegrated two separate people, but when you live whole, that makes everything grow together. And so I think that spiritually, physically, emotionally, relationally, all of those things should be progressing at the same time. And so that’s why I always say this: life is about progression, not perfection.”
“So many people are trying to get things right when they should just be trying to get it better. And if they get it better, they’ll end up in a better place than they ever could before,” he added.
He hopes that viewers apply what they’ve learned about the characters’ transformation in the movie to their own growth and relationships.
“And maybe they wanna talk to somebody about it. And I think it’ll transform their life ’cause I’ve seen it happen so many times,” he explained.
His favorite testimony from someone who read his book is that it helped them get out of a hurtful relationship.
“There was somebody who was in a very abusive relationship, and there’s a chapter in the book called ‘Does it Need to End?’ And they were settled that they were just going to live this life. And they read this book, and they got the courage and the wisdom and the community around them to walk away from that lifestyle,” he told Movieguide®, “and they’re now thriving and healthy and married with children.”
“And they just said, I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t read that. I could live in a different life than I was living,” he said. “And for me, I mean, what are we talking about? That’s somebody’s life actually changed and transformed. And that’s one of thousands of testimonies.”
The movie stars Kelly Rowand, Method Man, Robin Thede and Annie Gonzalez. It comes out on Feb. 4 on Prime Video.
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