Warning: Mild SPOILERS lie ahead for Roofman!Channing Tatum’s new crime comedy Roofman adapts a surreal and heartfelt true story, even if it required leaving out some of the more insane elements of its inspiration. Co-written and directed by Oscar nominee Derek Cianfrance, the film tells the story of Jeffrey Manchester, a former US Army Reserve member who went on a crime spree through the late ’90s robbing McDonald’s locations across the country.
After initially being arrested and sent to prison in North Carolina, Manchester escaped under a prison bus and stayed in Charlotte, living both in a local Toys “R” Us and a vacant Circuit City. As he continued stealing from some local McDonald’s, Manchester also became a staple of the community, including entering a relationship with single mother, Leigh Wainscott, growing close with her and her kids.
Tatum leads the Roofman cast as Manchester alongside Oscar nominee Kirsten Dunst as Wainscott, Emmy winner Ben Mendelsohn, four-time Emmy winner Peter Dinklage, three-time Emmy winner Uzo Aduba, Emmy nominee Juno Temple and Oscar nominee LaKeith Stanfield. Having previously premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, the film is garnering largely positive reviews, with many hailing it as Tatum’s best performance of his career.
In honor of the movie’s release, ScreenRant interviewed Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, LaKeith Stanfield and Derek Cianfrance to discuss Roofman. The stars opened up about getting to immerse themselves in a rebuilt Toys “R” Us, as well as the interesting things learned from the real people behind the story. The co-writer/director, meanwhile, offered insight into telling Manchester’s unique true story, including a scene deleted from one of his more “unbelievable” interactions with the police.
Roofman Deleted A Scene Involving Manchester Interacting With Police…In A Bunny Suit
With Manchester having operated for five years and robbing upwards of 60 fast food restaurants, including the Toys “R” Us he had lived in for some time, there was ample material for Roofman to explore. However, while Cianfrance and co-writer Kirt Gunn sought to capture as much as possible within their 126-minute runtime, there were elements they, of course, had to adjust for the film.
One moment, Cianfrance revealed, that was actually shot before being cut was a Halloween night sequence in which “Jeff was dressed up as a giant bunny“, taking one of Wainscott’s children out for trick or treating. When complaining that her costume’s lack of pockets made her hands feel cold, he came up with the solution to get scissors, though the only option they had to get a pair was to go to a nearby police station.
“Jeff walked into the police station in a bunny outfit and asked the officers for scissors to make pockets,” Cianfrance explained. “So that happens, and you can shoot that, and when you see it, it feels unbelievable, even though it really happened.“
Despite the cut, Cianfrance assured Roofman couldn’t have been made without his frequent conversations with Manchester to properly realize his stories. As the co-writer/director recalls, the real-life subject told him “this is my story, but it’s your movie and I want you to translate my story in the way you see fit“. He went on to describe having “learned so much” in talking and listening to Manchester for “400 hours“, with the filmmaker even earning the nickname “Dr. Derek“.
“He said that he would lay down and have his head shrunk, and what I heard from Jeff was just this eternal optimist who was so charming, so charismatic, and was paying the price of all of his bad decisions,” Cianfrance shared. “He’s living in prison for 45 years, and he spent nine of those years in solitary confinement.”
Cianfrance further denoted how Manchester’s good heart was seen when it came to his trial after he was recaptured by the police. Rather than take the initial plea deal of seven years, as his “kids will be teenagers by the time I get out of here” and feeling “I didn’t hurt anyone“, he instead sought to fight the charges. This ultimately led to his being imprisoned for 45 years, currently halfway through his sentencing.
He made a lot of bad decisions, and I was able to just hear his story from him. Also, it was crazy to hear his story. Sometimes, I was like, “Is this guy telling me a tall tale?”
Manchester wasn’t the only person Cianfrance turned to in order to help flesh out Roofman‘s true story, with the co-writer/director going on to “speak with everyone in his life“, including Manchester’s mother, brother, Wainscott and even “the cops that arrested him“. This went a long way to helping get “a true portrait” of who his real-life subject is. He even defends those questioning “How could you make a movie about this criminal and cast Channing Tatum“, affirming Manchester is as “jovial and fun” as his star.
Cianfrance even went as far as to include some of the real people in Manchester’s life in cameo roles in Roofman. As the co-writer/director described, “I wanted everyone to be a part of this thing” and for it to “be a positive experience for all involved” in the story.
Rebuilding Toys “R” Us Brought Out Everyone’s Inner Child
Prior to Roofman, Cianfrance is better known for his work in dramatic territory, including the Oscar-nominated Blue Valentine, the epic crime drama The Place Beyond The Pines and Emmy-nominated Mark Ruffalo miniseries I Know This Much Is True. When it came to branching out into something a bit more comedic, the filmmaker acknowledges he’s “always been attracted to tragedies in my work“, but thanks to his wife, comedian Shannon Plumb, he realized “comedy and tragedy are flip sides of the same coin“.
“What I really wanted to look at was if I flipped that coin in the air and as it spun, you would see the comedy and tragedy face at the same time,” Cianfrance explained. “I was thinking about when people slip on a banana peel, you laugh, but it hurts. So, I was thinking about that pain and humor and comedy being in one thing.“
Aiming to branch out “from that cocoon of darkness and seriousness“, Cianfrance looked at Roofman as a way to “make a movie that was a ride for people“, even if it wasn’t “a total escape“. Describing the film as something of a Christmas movie in his eyes, he further recalls the joy of getting to help rebuild a Toys “R” Us for production, tapping into the holiday subgenre’s themes of “nostalgia” and “a return home“.
I wanted to make a movie that reminded me of the movies I loved when I was growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, movies that had this limitless potential, like Mrs. Doubtfire or something, a movie that was all heart, but had real stakes in it as well.
“They’re usually about a small community where something magical happens, like a fish appears with wings,” Cianfrance described. “And to me, that was Jeff [Manchester]. One of the things I wanted to do when I made this movie is go down to that community where all these events took place. So, I shot it down in Charlotte, North Carolina with a lot of the real people that were involved in the situation with Jeff.“
Recalling the initial challenge in finding a Toys “R” Us in the area, after the original was turned into a megachurch and the Circuit City into a carpet warehouse, Cianfrance and his team eventually discovered “a shell of a Toys ‘R’ Us“. “It was 45,000 square feet and there was not a tile on the floor, there were no light bulbs, and all the copper wire had been stripped,” Cianfrance shared.
He went on to praise production designer Inbal Weinberg and her “amazing team” for subsequently taking the building and “filling this thing up one tile at a time, one light bulb at a time, one shelving unit at a time, and one toy at a time“. The latter element, in particular, proved one of the more troublesome for the production, denoting that filling a store to the size of Toys “R” Us is “an unending task“, but was dedicated to it in order for “my actors to be able to have that freedom to be able to play in a toy store again“.
In reflecting on their experience with the set, Tatum admits that one of the areas of the store he was immediately drawn to is the “BMX bikes“, recalling as a child how he “would always just run right to the bike section as soon as we got into the building“. For Dunst, she admits to having been something of “a cliché gal“, always running “right for the Barbie section” as a kid, with Tatum agreeing and pointing out “we were kids in the ’80s and ’90s“.
One star who lamented not getting to check out the recreated Toys “R” Us is that of LaKeith Stanfield, whose supporting role didn’t have him go there. Acknowledging he, too, is a child of the ’80s and ’90s, he describes the iconic retail store as being “this amazing nostalgic place” from his childhood that is “unlike anything that these kids have a version of” today. Stanfield also admits keeping him away from the set might have been the best thing for production.
“I would have probably tried to seek out the Thomas the Choo-Choo Train set, since my very first fluffy thing was a Thomas the Choo-Choo Train set, which I loved dearly, I think too much,” Stanfield said with a chuckle. “I think someone ended up hiding it from me, and I haven’t found it since. It was actually quite traumatic, when you’re young and you lose something. That was like my friend, so shout out Thomas to the Choo-Choo Train.“
What Else We Learned From Tatum, Dunst & Stanfield
ScreenRant: My last question I wanted to ask, we were all just at TIFF, but I was talking to Ben Foster and I brought up the 2001 movie, Get Over It. It’s one of my favorite movies ever, and I feel like it kind of flew under the radar, so I’m curious how you feel about that movie, looking back on it.
Kirsten Dunst: I thought about it, but I did see Ben there, which flooded back memories too.[Colin Hanks] was there too. Yeah, that was a good cast, it was fun. We had a good time, I liked making that movie.
ScreenRant: And then I was also talking to Brandon Jay McLaren, and he said he thinks you guys are going to do something for the She’s The Man anniversary.
Channing Tatum: I would love to do that. She’s The Man has had such an evolution. It was way ahead of its time. It was one thing when we did it, and then it kind of grew into another thing, and then it’s sort of now relevant in a completely new way. It’s just really had its own life. It’s a really wild one. It’s Shakespeare, I guess, so that’s probably a core reason why.
ScreenRant: I love, love, love Sorry To Bother You, so hearing that you’re collaborating with Boots Riley again is exciting. I’m curious what excites you the most about I Love Boosters?
LaKeith Stanfield: Oh, I love Boots. If you thought that one was crazy, this one’s even more crazy and fun, evocative, and also has a message at the center of it, how Boots likes to do it. So it’s also very layered. It was just super fun to do. Super fun to be a part of. I feel like it’s another classic. I consider Sorry to Bother You a classic already, and I think that this is another one.
ScreenRant: I love that you also, about a week ago, dropped “Fast Life” with Kid Cudi, and there was at one point a long awaited album in the works. I’m curious what your status is, and what your new musical era chapter looks like.
LaKeith Stanfield: Yeah, thank you. I just dropped “Fast Life”, shout out Cudi. The album is nearly done. I’m working on it now, and it will be dropping. It will give people a cornucopia of different sounds that I’ve been on, and having guest features with people I love. So yeah, it’s going to be sweet.
ScreenRant: How do you describe it?
LaKeith Stanfield: I would say that no interview has given a perspective into who I really am as much as my music will. I also think that I am on a consistent healing journey and part of that journey is chronicled through my music while making things that I like to dance to.
Roofman is now in theaters.
- Release Date
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October 10, 2025
- Runtime
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126 minutes
- Director
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Derek Cianfrance
- Writers
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Kirt Gunn, Derek Cianfrance
- Producers
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Alex Orlovsky, Dylan Sellers, Duncan Montgomery, Jamie Patricof, Lynette Howell Taylor