Bringing The True Story To The Big Screen
Filmmaker Derek Cianfrance began his career in indie filmmaking, gaining recognition with emotionally raw and acclaimed dramas like Blue Valentine (2010) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012). Known for his intimate, character-driven storytelling, he built a reputation for capturing human vulnerability with gritty realism. After making the HBO miniseries I Know This Much Is True (2020), Cianfrance decided to turn his lens to a new kind of story, blending his signature emotional depth with the suspense of a true-crime narrative and a touch of light-hearted, nostalgic fun.
“I felt like I had finished saying what I needed to say about things like ancestry, inheritance, and generational trauma, so I was searching for a way not to repeat myself,” he states. “I had always been attracted to kind of dark stories – I wanted to have some fun making a movie, like the movies I loved growing up,” with real people in real life. “I wanted to explore a new tone, where the line between the tragic and the comic was blurred. I didn’t look at the darkness with more darkness.”
Hunting Lane Films producer and longtime friend, Jamie Patricof had known Cianfrance since their days working in New York at RadicalMedia in the early 2000s and first collaborated in 2010 on Blue Valentine. “His style was unorthodox – you couldn’t contain or control him,” the producer laughs. “That started my understanding of his creative vision being so unique and his unique style.”
In 2021, Limelight producer Dylan Sellers, who found and owned rights to the “Roofman” story, reached out to Patricof to share with Cianfrance, whom he knew was the perfect person to tell the tale of Jeffrey Manchester. “I told Jamie, ‘This is a remarkable TRUE story with the kind of bent character Derek might love,” Sellers shares.
As Sellers predicted, Cianfrance loved the idea, under one condition: He wanted to start from scratch. Patricof recalls, “And when I heard about it, I instantly knew it was something Derek was going to love. He jumped in, and went headfirst, like he always does. Once he gets his claws into something creatively, he’s passionate about it and won’t stop.”
“I heard about it, this guy who had robbed 45 McDonald’s®, had been sentenced to 45 years in prison, had broken out of prison and then lived hidden inside a Toys “R” Us® for six months, while getting involved in a church,” Cianfrance says. “And I thought to myself, ‘Well, that sounds like a fun movie.’ It took place in the suburbs, like the Denver suburbs I grew up in. I understood big box stores. So, I wanted to make a throwback movie to that kind of life,” he says. “But I didn’t know if there was a story there or not.”
So, he asked to speak with Jeffrey, who, in a maximum-security prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, could only respond to a call request himself. “Eventually, I got a phone call from Jeff, which lasted 15 minutes, and was recorded by the prison system,” Cianfrance notes of the maximum a call could be with a prisoner. “I was very intrigued by his story. So, he started calling me, about four times a week for the next four years, telling me his story,” adding, “He started calling me ‘Dr. Derek’ – I think the process was good for him.”
“Derek is a very unique filmmaker, the way he approaches things,” says producer Alex Orlovsky. “He has an incredible emotional intelligence, and he will uncover the truth in any moment. He’s very selective about the movies he makes, and when he finds one that hits him, he will not let go. He’s tenacious and won’t stop until he’s found what’s really at the core of that idea. Not many filmmakers work with that level of integrity.”
“I approached this movie as an investigator, to find out what the truth was of this story,” the director notes. “But the truth here is subjective. I know when I speak to Jeff Manchester, his truth is his own.”
About two years into talking with Jeffrey, he realized he needed to expand his perspective, asking his subject who else he could speak with from his life, like his family, “But then there were people from the real story that we went out and found, too,” such as Leigh Wainscott, Pastor Ron Smith, Sgt. Kathleen Scheimreif, and prison guards, among others. Unlike a historical figure, he notes, “No one has a reference for who Jeff Manchester was. So, I wanted those people to be part of this storytelling.”
“As Derek went into this, both the writing of the script and then also the shooting of the movie, the idea was: How do you tell it honestly? How do you be fair to both Jeff and also the victims? How do you bring the real people into the story – if they want to come to terms with or revisit the story in some ways?” says Patricof.
“I told Derek, I had one request – any way I can publicize the amazing abilities of my detectives, I’m all for it,” says Charlotte-Mecklenburg Sgt. Katherine Scheimreif, who was brought onboard to find Jeffrey after he escaped prison in 2004. After that, her detectives were also all in. “I told them, ‘Y’all need to step up, because this guy is sincere. He wants to do the right thing.’”
During one of his talks with Ron Smith, the director adds, “Pastor Ron told me he looks at the Old Testament as the book of judgement and the New Testament as the book of grace, and he always errs on the side of grace. I felt like that was such a beautiful way to approach Jeff’s story. I tried to look at Jeff with grace as opposed to judgement.”
That commitment to empathy and human complexity has long shaped Cianfrance’s collaborations as well. Back in 2003, advertising exec Kirt Gunn was looking for a filmmaker to put together a series of short films on a limited budget. He queried Jon Kamen at RadicalMedia, who, Gunn recalls, said, “‘I’ve got a guy in the back. You don’t know him, but he’s great – and he’s the only guy you can afford.’ He brought Derek out, wearing camouflage pants and a raggedy black T- shirt with a hole in it.” He explained his story, and Cianfrance explained his approach, and the two have been friends ever since. “He’s always been my mentor,” the director says. “Every project I’ve made I would send the script to Kirt for guidance.”
The two had, for years, hoped for a project they could write together. Interestingly, when he approached his old friend in 2021 about the idea of Roofman, the story of a guy holed up in a Toys “R” Us® for six months, Gunn told him, “When I was in high school, I had a hidden room in the attic behind the theater there,” a secret apartment that became his safe place. “He and Jeffrey even have the same birthday,” Cianfrance says. “So, I thought, ‘This is synchronicity.’”
Gunn made one call to Jeffrey, and became completely intrigued by the strange, quirky character on the other end. As Patricof recalls, “That started a three-year journey writing together. And I think they crafted a beautiful script, one that’s very true to Jeff’s story, but is still an entertaining movie.”
The two found that they had very different, but complementary processes. “I come from theater, and have a real reverence for language and dialogue, the rhythms and musicality of the way people speak,” Gunn notes. “And Derek loves emotional honesty, and probing that, with an inquisitive nature for pulling scenes and dialogue apart, getting to the core of what the emotional truth is. It took us a while, but by the end of it, we got to a point where he could say, ‘I think the thing this scene is about is this emotional moment,’ and then I could go off and write the scene and come back, and it would be exactly the way he had seen it.”
Both writers continued interviewing Jeffrey, with Gunn doing 40 or 50 of the above- mentioned 15-minute calls, and Cianfrance well over 100, calling each other following their calls to discuss what they had learned. “We just first took the pieces from Jeff, the chronological order of how things happened, trying to get to the core of why he did the things he did and the relationships he had, and the regrets he had and the damage he caused. And, the adventures he had,” says Gunn.
“Jeffrey’s actions and ideas are big and explosive, and so they create room and opportunity for real life humor and comedy. It’s delicious for a writer to be able to take that and put it into a screenplay,” says producer Lynette Howell Taylor. “What makes the movie unique are the specifics of his character and how he has these big, outrageous, and often ridiculous ideas that, when you’re a filmmaker, you can take and shoot in a way that really shows you the absurdity of his life. And that’s where the comic genius comes into play.”
The pair’s research, as mentioned earlier, also included interviews with other members of the Jeffrey inner circle, something that had a remarkable effect on their approach. “The turning point for us was when we spoke to Pastor Ron and Leigh Wainscott,” says Gunn. “Each of them had a really unique – and optimistic – view of the experience. They were actually very thankful to have met Jeff, and thankful for the adventure. And that gave Derek and me a real view on optimism, redemption and forgiveness,” themes seen throughout Roofman. “He was a real Peter Pan character, who took people on an adventure. And in the end, even though they had some sadness and some regrets, they also had the most amazing adventure of their lives,” he says, adding, “Even on the phone calls, it’s easy to go with Jeff on a ride.”
As for many of the story details, Cianfrance’s conversations with Wainscott were invaluable. “Derek had many conversations with Leigh. And it was really informative. She gave a lot of specifics that were really helpful for the movie,” says Howell Taylor. “At the center of this movie is the core relationship between Jeffrey and Leigh. And so, for Derek, being able to get Leigh’s perspective and Jeff’s perspective and then bring that information to the actors was really valuable. That creates the dynamic that you see on screen.”
Though she could have been, Leigh does not hold contempt for Jeffrey. “I wasn’t angry with him, I was just upset about the whole situation – and that I had to hurt him. But I did the right thing,” she notes. “There was something different about his mind.” Adds Scheimreif, “He was a mastermind – very intelligent. More than the average person. That was his gift. And his ability to manipulate.”
Though they encountered many perspectives along the way, Cianfrance explains, “We chose to tell the movie from Jeff’s perspective. This isn’t an omniscient point of view film. It’s first person, and it’s from Jeff’s point of view.” Those countless phone calls with him played a crucial role. “Jeff’s voice was in our head. And so he is in many ways, telling the story.” In fact, Jeffrey’s voice is woven throughout the film’s narration. “A lot of the voice over in the film came from Jeff. Much of those lines are things he actually told us. They’re the events that happened in Jeff’s reality of what he created.”
As outlandish as some of the events in Manchester’s life were, filmmakers knew that audiences would still find his character relatable. “Jeff is somebody who I think, in many ways, people can connect to. He was in the military. He was unable to make ends meet and he got to a place of sort of desperation to provide for his family and be a father,” says Patricof. “That led him down a path of crime, which obviously is never acceptable. But I think people, especially today, can understand where – if you can’t put food on the table or you can’t have a roof over your head – what that can lead to. So, on the one hand, I hope people can see that in Jeff. The other thing I hope people can see is that there are consequences for your actions.”
There was actually so much great material that the writing duo had to figure out what to leave out. “There were too many great stories to fit in one film,” says Gunn. “So, it became about curating and deciding which puzzle pieces fit together to tell this story.”
While making tough choices about what stories to include in the film, filmmakers found the most challenging thing about the movie to nail was the tone. “It’s many genres. It is a crime movie. It is a love story. It is a comedy. It has all of these different elements and it flows in and out of these different genres as the movie unfolds,” says Howell Taylor. “Derek is masterful at bringing all of that together, and the production design, the costume design, the hair and makeup are all a part of it. Everything feeds into that delicate balance between those genres of moviemaking.”
There were also many things that were almost beyond belief, though in a movie about Jeffrey Manchester, they sort of made sense. Cianfrance notes that, “There were times we looked at it and said, ‘this is a nonfiction piece, but it feels unbelievable as fiction.’” Like blowing up his dentist’s office to get rid of the X-rays that might point to him as the culprit in the robberies. “Jeff is the smartest dumb guy you’ll ever meet,” says Gunn. “In many ways, he is a mastermind at understanding how things work, people and architecture, and how those are vulnerable and where the weak parts are. But when it comes to just the basic common sense of fitting into a situation with other people, he doesn’t have that common sense. He makes big, broad mistakes that hurt people he loves.” It became a matter of walking the tightrope “of sharing a complicated, flawed, lovable quirky person, and how he created joyful moments, as well as caused damage and created happiness, and was funny, amazing, terrible and quirky – just like we all are.”
Based on an unbelievable true story, Roofman follows Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), an Army veteran and struggling father who turns to robbing McDonald’s restaurants by cutting holes in their roofs, earning him the nickname: Roofman. After escaping prison, he secretly lives inside a Toys “R” Us for six months, surviving undetected while planning his next move. But when he falls for Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), a divorced mom drawn to his undeniable charm, his double life begins to unravel, setting off a compelling and suspenseful game of cat and mouse as his past closes in.
From Page To Screen
David Stephens and Peter Petrucci wrote and sold the original Roofman script, which was then rewritten by Kurt Gunn and Derek.Cianfrance. Stephens is a filmmaker from Western Australia and has been conversing with the Roofman (Jeff Manchester) for the past 6 years, and also served as an Executive Producer on the film and has directed music videos and shorts, Trigger screening at multiple festivals. Peter is also from Western Australia, graduating from film school at Curtin University. He currently teaches English and creative writing in high school. Peter came across Jeffrey Manchester’s story in the old Canadian TV show, Masterminds and also served as an EP.
Derek Cianfrance was a longtime fan of actor Channing Tatum
In late 2006, after seeing his performance alongside Robert Downey Jr. in Dito Montiel’s A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, met with him. The director was, at the time, still trying to get Blue Valentine off the ground. “I gave him my script, he read it and met with me, and he said, ‘I love your script, but I just don’t think I’m this guy.’ We shook hands and I said, ‘Maybe down the road. I’ll see you later.’” Back then, Tatum wasn’t yet a father, so didn’t feel he could properly portray the character.
17 years later, in 2023, while in the midst of writing Roofman, Cianfrance had begun thinking of actors to portray Jeffrey Manchester, and, once again, reached out to Tatum, and the two met for a nice, long walk in Prospect Park – a four or five hour walk. “We just went for a long walk through the park, just vibed and hung out,” Tatum recalls. “We didn’t even talk about any movies or projects – just about life.” Cianfrance notes, “I didn’t tell Channing anything about Jeffrey Manchester or what I was working on. But I had this sense from him that he had to be the guy. But I didn’t want to pitch it to him. So I just went back to writing my script, and spent another year, thinking of every word that would come out of Jeff’s mouth was going to be Channing, and started to visualize him as the person in the role. And gradually, and pretty effortlessly, Jeff’s voice became Channing’s voice in my head. From there, the script really started to write itself.
A year later, in early-2024, he sent Tatum the script and asked if he would do it. “Derek said, ‘So I wrote this thing, and I wrote it for you. It’s a thing I’ve been thinking about. I hope you like it and want to do it,’” the actor remembers. “Can you imagine how scary that is – ‘What do you mean you wrote something for me?’ But I read it and loved it. I love Derek’s movies. He has a very specific tone that’s his… He’s a deeply sensitive soul, but always curious about what is going on beneath the surface.”
His background as a dancer also gives him a certain grace for moving through spaces of the Toys “R” Us® and escaping prison. There’s an elegance in the way he moves through those places,” notes the actress. “There’s nothing like Channing Tatum in a toy store,” adds Cianfrance. “He’s like the saddest dad clown possible. It’s a balancing act, between sad and tragic comedy, which Channing handles so well.”
DEREK CIANFRANCE (Directed by, Screenplay by, Executive Producer) is a director, cinematographer, screenwriter, and editor, who has received critical recognition for Blue Valentine which starred Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, and The Place Beyond the Pines which also starred Gosling in addition to Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes. Cianfrance adapted M.L. Steadman’s multi-year New York Times bestseller, The Light Between the Oceans for DreamWorks, starring Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Rachel Weisz. Cianfrance wrote and directed every episode for the 2020 HBO miniseries, “I Know This Much is True,” adapted from the novel of the same name by Wally Lamb and starring Mark Ruffalo. Ruffalo earned a Primetime Emmy for his performance in the series. In 2021, Cianfrance received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay with Darius Marder and Abraham Marder for the Sound of Metal, which garnered 6 nominations that year including Best Picture. In addition to his notable feature work, Cianfrance is recognized for his commercials and high-profile branded content including Meta, Chase, the Nike Golf ad for which he was awarded the DGA’s Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials in 2016.
KIRT GUNN (Screenplay by) is an award-winning producer, writer and director. His credits include Executive Producer on Best Picture nominee, Sound of Metal, one of many collaborations with filmmaker Derek Cianfrance. Gunn also wrote and directed the award-winning film Lovely by Surprise, starring Carrie Preston and Michael Chernus. The film won the Special Jury Prize at its premiere at the Seattle Film Festival and made its international premiere at The Edinburgh Film Festival. Of the film, Filmmaker Magazine said— “Lovely By Surprise is a playful and profound literary confection – a brilliantly original debut by Kirt Gunn, one of the most exciting prospects working in American indie cinema.” Critic Godfrey Cheshire observed, “Recalling 70s dark comedies such as Altman’s Brewster McCloud as well as the post-modern reflexiveness of Adaptation, the film’s double-helix tale ingeniously interweaves pathos and hilarity, grief and imagination, entrapment and escape. In his remarkably assured debut, writer-director Kirt Gunn proves himself both a highly distinctive wordsmith and an accomplished visual stylist. Few recent first-time comedies have impressed me more.”
As an owner, creator and Executive Producer at NYC-based Dandelion, Gunn’s episodic narratives were featured in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and featured on CNN, ABC and NBC. These projects included performances by Ellie Kemper, Anjelica Huston and Jason Mantzoukas. The series “Meet the Lucky Ones” (written by Gunn and directed by Derek Cianfrance) was featured at the Sundance Film Festival. In earlier life, Gunn was a playwright, stage director and actor and served as Artistic Director of The River City Shakespeare Festival, which he founded. Additionally, he was a musician and frontman of Memphis-based The Delta Queens, a band Timeout’s Stephin Merrit noted as “The best live performance I’ve seen in years.” As a harmonica player, Gunn shared the stage with BB King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy and the legendary Fieldstones.
