10 Disturbing True Stories Behind Famous Movies
3. The Author's Son's Best Friend Was Fatally Struck By Lightning - Bridge To Terabithia
Katherine Paterson's 1977 novel Bridge to Terabithia was eventually adapted into a Hollywood movie in 2007.
The story revolves around two 11-year-old neighbours, Jess (Josh Hutcherson) and Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), who construct an elaborate fantasy world in their minds to escape the fraught realities of their actual lives.
The big twist late in the story is that Leslie ends up dying from a traumatic head injury after a rope she uses to swing across the nearby creek snaps, forcing Jess to come to terms with his friend's mortality at a devastatingly young age.
Yet the narrative has a most unexpected and heartbreaking inspiration itself. Paterson was compelled to write Bridge to Terabithia after her young son, David, formed a friendship with a young girl, Lisa Hill, who was suddenly struck by lightning and killed at just eight years of age.
The parallels speak for themselves, and in a fitting turnaround, when Paterson's novel was adapted for the big screen, her son David not only wrote the screenplay but served as a producer.
The deeply personal tether to both versions of this story is likely why they feel like such emotionally authentic portrays of grief.