Has Roofman seen ‘Roofman’? and other tidbits from the movie’s Charlotte premiere

A packed house at the Carolina Theatre greeted the opening film of the 2025 Charlotte Film Festival with a roar of applause.

“Roofman,” which filmed in Charlotte last fall and winter, came home on Tuesday evening with the local premiere of the Hollywood production that’s set to hit theaters on Oct. 10.

“It was a dream,” director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance told the sold-out audience. “It was the only place to make this movie.”

Filmed in the Charlotte region for 37 days from October through December 2024, “Roofman” tells the story of Jeffrey Manchester, known colloquially as the “Roofman” or “Rooftop Robber,” who was put in prison after robbing a string of fast food restaurants in the area. He didn’t last in jail long — escaping to Charlotte and hiding out in a Toys R’ Us in the early 2000s where he ended up striking a relationship with a woman at a local church and eventually robbing the store.

Manchester is played in the film by Channing Tatum, who brings a lot of energy to the real life criminal — but that cheerful attitude was something that stuck out about Manchester, Cianfrance told the Observer.

“The real Jeff is lively and jovial, and a lot of fun,” he said. “A lot of the people who I interviewed were involved in some of his crimes would talk about him in that way. I talked with Pastor Ron Smith or Leigh Wainscott, his girlfriend at the time, and I tried to use their character portrayals of Jeff as a guiding light and I tried to make him the person they saw….

“His whole purpose was to be a better provider for his family… and he made these huge mistakes in order to achieve that for his family and what happened was that he got taken away from his family.”

Tatum is joined by Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage and Ben Mendelsohn to round out the cast that also includes Charlotte locals who were around at the time of Manchester’s robberies and appearances at the church, and local crewspeople and actors.

“Being able to show the movie here with the people who understand, sort of the DNA of the story, and it’s nerve wracking, to be honest. I think of all the screenings we’ll ever do, this was the most nerve wracking one. So we’re very thankful how well I played Charlotte,” producer Jaime Patricof said.

Here are three other notes during the post-film Q&A that stood out about the production of “Roofman” in Charlotte:

The Toys R’ Us was a real Toys R’ Us – at one time

Cianfrance said he wanted the film to be authentic and that meant “Roofman” production designer Inbal Weinberg was creating a Toys R’ Us. A task she said actually came from one of the last, defunct Toys R’ Us stores left in the country — right here in Pineville.

“We visited the original (Toys R’ Us) location, which is now a church, and we did a lot of research, and it was just a mega project,” she said.

“Our entire department sort of turned into a toy manufacturing facility, and we just had to buy toys, create them, create the graphics and bring in all of the shelving. It was like making a real store, especially because Derek loves having his actors interact with reality as much as we can make it. And so it was there for the actors to play with. It was so authentic.”

Patricof said when they found the store, it had a faded logo, broken tiles and no flooring inside of the building.

“There was no floor, there was no electricity, there were no light fixtures. I think we replaced 2,000 light fixtures. I mean, there was nothing in that building, and Derek was adamant we have to shoot in a Toys R’ Us. I mean, this was not a Toys R’ Us. The ghost of a Toys R’ Us lived in this.”

Roofman has not seen “Roofman”

Manchester is currently serving 35 years in a maximum security prison near Raleigh and so he was not in attendance for the premiere of the movie.

Cianfrance said Manchester has not seen any of the movie yet — just promotional material — but that small amount of exposure gave his mother, who passed away recently, some laughs.

“He told me that their last conversation they had was they were laughing about the tag line on the poster that it was based on actual events and terrible decisions. So he was very thankful that the movie gave him and his mom a good laugh together,” Cianfrance said.

But he did have one question.

“He was like that image (on the poster) of Channing (Tatum) in a pair of Heelys with his underwear, and he’s wearing like a pool floaty, and he’s got a teddy bear around his neck. He was like, Where’d you get that idea? And I was like, ‘Well, my production designer built this Toys R’ Us, and it was a functional Toys R’ Us,’” he said.

“There were toys on all the shelves and we were setting up a shot, and Channing Tatum came around the corner, and he looked like that. And so we pointed the camera at him, and we took a picture and it made the poster. And he was like, ‘you know Derek, I’m really happy to hear that because if you live in a toy store for six months, it has a way to connect you to your inner child. And I’m very thankful to hear that Channing got a chance to be connected to his.’”

The movie wouldn’t be what it is without filming in Charlotte

Cianfrance said he had to make this movie in Charlotte to connect with the people and the city. There was talk of South Africa or Bulgaria, even New Jersey, for the filming location but it was meaningful to bring the story back to the Queen City.

“It was very important to us to bring the movie back down to Charlotte and I was fortunate enough to be able to work with not only a great crew down here, but also people who were involved in the real story,” he said.

“A lot of those people were generous enough to play versions of themselves in the movies. And there’s a lot of love from the people here that came from the movie.”

Weinberg agreed, saying it was important to not only capture the spaces that the story inhabited but the area at large.

“I feel like the film already has a bit of a nostalgic look that helps maybe tone down some of the more modern stuff. And it was important for us to showcase as much as we could the commercial nature of suburbia, the sort of big box wasteland that I feel like is not just unique to Charlotte,” Weinberg said.

“I think maybe there is a point that you can connect with universally. And then I think I remember the moment when we found the original church that really grounded us in a different time.”

For Patricof, he remembers staying in uptown and being able to walk and soak into Charlotte while they were working in town. “One of my favorite days I had it…. It was on the weekend, and I walked down to Romere Bearden Park. I went to the Mint Museum. I went to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. We went and got lunch, walked back, walked by (Bank of America Stadium),” he said.

“It’s just such a beautiful city. And we tell everybody that it’s just, it’s so great.”

Cianfrance said one of his favorite days on set was when they filmed a scene at a Red Lobster when members of the church are joined by Manchester for lunch. “Channing was out in the car, and he came into this great cast of local actors and real people from the (time Manchester was in town), and he just got put in the hot seat. And it was great to see Channing sweat. It was great to see him put off his center.”

“Roofman” hits theaters on Oct. 10 while the Charlotte Film Festival continues through Sunday, Sept. 28.

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This story was originally published September 24, 2025 at 5:30 AM.

Zach Dennis

The Charlotte Observer