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Esther the Wonder Pig and Her Gay Dads Are Getting A Feature Film

Esther The Wonder Pig

The movie will tell the 650-pound social media star's story of love, acceptance, and found family. 

Esther the Wonder Pig, the commercial-sized pig who became a social media smash hit when the gay men who adopted her began chronicling her adventures as she grew from what they thought was a micro-piglet into a 650-pound house pet, is getting a feature film, according to Deadline.

Since Esther's "dads" Derek Walter and Steve Jenkins adopted her in 2012 and began posting about her in 2013, she has amassed a social media following that includes 1.4 million Facebook users and more than half a million Instagram followers. She's also been the subject of three books including Esther The Wonder Pig, Happily Ever Esther, the vegan cookbook Esther Approved!, and Esther The Wonder Pig, a children's book about love and family with a gay male couple at the head.

Donners' Company, which brought audiences the animal-themed rescue films Free Willy and Hotel for Dogs, is producing the feature about Esther with a script from Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis, according to Deadline.

The film will follow the story of love and acceptance told in the Esther books about how the Canada-based Jenkins, a former real estate agent, and Walter, a professional magician, realized they couldn't give up the ever-growing Esther. Instead, they fitted their house and lives to accommodate her. And she has since shared the home with her dads, a turkey, a couple of dogs, and some cats. Because of Esther, Walter and Jenkins founded the Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary, "dedicated to rescuing abused, neglected, and abandoned farmed animals," according to its site.

The story of Esther and her dads is a tale of acceptance that doesn't shy away from depicting men in a loving relationship. Readers of the children's book, which is essentially the story the movie will tell, flip through to witness Esther's dads sharing a bed in a room with their pets, giving her a bath, and hugging and weeping together when they think they've lost her.

"One of the primary messages we want to get through to readers of all ages is that families come in all shapes and sizes," Jenkins told The Advocate in an interview last year. "It's OK to be different too because that's what makes your family special. That goes for animals too. We want them to realize how important it is to be kind to all kinds of people, and of course, all kinds of animals."

Advocate Channel - The Pride StoreOut / Advocate Magazine - Fellow Travelers & Jamie Lee Curtis

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Tracy E. Gilchrist