Channing Tatum portrays crook Jeffrey Manchester in Roofman – and the movie’s director, Derek Cianfrance, said it has had a real-life impact on the imprisoned burglar
Channing Tatum as Jeffrey Manchester in Roofman(Image: Paramount Pictures)
A former McDonald’s bandit has reunited with his family after years thanks to a new film starring Channing Tatum.
The Magic Mike star portrays crook Jeffrey Manchester, a man who was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in jail for a string of robberies in the late 1990s and early 2000s, in Roofman. The movie tracks Manchester’s time after his prison break, when he famously camped out in a Toys R Us for months after escaping prison and ended up striking a romantic relationship with one of the employees, a newly divorced mom with two kids.
Manchester, a former military sergeant and divorced father-of-three, began robbing businesses such as McDonald’s, Burger King restaurants, Toys R Us and Blockbuster stores by creating a hole through the roof to sneak in. He successfully struck 38 businesses across nine states and remained unidentified for years – simply known as The Roofman or Rooftop Robber.
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He was caught and arrested after hitting a McDonad’s in Belmont, North Carolina, in May 2000, and sentenced to 45 years in prison. But on June 15, 2004, he escaped from the Brown Creek Correctional Institution by clinging to the undercarriage of a truck. He then ended up in a Toys R Us store in Charlotte, North Carolina, for several months, until an employee found a space he had been hiding in.
Roofman came out in October(Image: Paramount Pictures)
He was eventually captured in 2005 after venturing out in town and starting to date Leigh Wainscott, who eventually helped authorities catch him. Manchester now resides at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is expected to be released in 2036.
Over the past few years, Manchester has been estranged from his family but since Roofman came out in October, he has been able to mend relationships with his daughter and sister, who hadn’t been in contact for a while, said director Derek Cianfrance. Speaking to Page Six, Derek said, “In the time since the movie has come out in the last month, just two days ago, I spoke with his daughter for about two hours.
“She’s been in contact, she’s talked to Jeff six times . . . So in some ways, the movie has had this effect of connecting them again, you know, because he hadn’t talked to her for, I think, 15 years.” He added that Manchester’s sister has also reconnected with him.
The real-life Jeffrey Manchester has reunited with his family after the movie came out(Image: North Carolina Sheriff’s Department)
He explained, “Jeff called me a couple weeks ago, and he said, ‘Derek, if I could give you a hug, I would.’ He was like, ‘I called my sister, and she answered, and we talked for a half hour,’ and he said ‘It was like we were in high school together again.'”
Derek spent four-and-a-half years talking with the imprisoned burglar before creating the movie and noted he immediately understood he was “such a family man” who wanted to “make this perfect home for his kids” but “couldn’t figure out a way to do it.” Roofman, also starring Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage and Juno Temple, was released in October.
It has a huge score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, where critics have praised the plot, as well as Channing’s acting. Jesse Hassenger of AV Club said, “It’s nice to see Cianfrance working in a less melodramatic key, with conflict at a low simmer, and he doesn’t cop out on the reality of the situation.”
Manchester hid in a Toys R Us after escaping from prison(Image: Paramount Pictures)
“Channing Tatum’s easygoing charm leads Derek Cianfrance’s uneven true-crime dramedy,” wrote Casey Chong from Casey’s Movie Mania. “The movie is not only a character study about a man, but a profile of a community and what Manchester’s story tells the moviegoer about society,” added critic Sarah Vincent.
Peter Travers of The Travers Take shared, “Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst find the heart but not the bruised soul in a true-life crime drama from director Derek Cianfrance that should have cut deeper and hurt more.” Tessa Smith of That Hashtag Show said, “A truly captivating story that is so wild it is almost impossible to believe it is true (in a good way). Channing Tatum delivers an unforgettable performance!”
