Channing Tatum drops through a toy-store ceiling—and back into awards-season contention—in the first trailer for “Roofman,” Derek Cianfrance’s first feature since 2016. Paramount will release the true-crime drama in U.S. theaters on 10 October 2025, slotting it squarely inside the fall festival corridor.
Adapted from the escapades of Jeffrey Manchester, who burglarized dozens of McDonald’s outlets by drilling in from above and later hid for six months inside a Charlotte Toys “R” Us, the film pairs Tatum with Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield and Juno Temple.
Festival watchers already see it as Cianfrance’s “major festival run” comeback, with pundits betting on Telluride or Toronto after nearly a decade away from the director’s chair. Critics at FilmoFilia call the premise “Cianfrance’s wildest swing yet,” noting its blend of romance and criminal absurdity.
Tatum, who spoke to Entertainment Weekly, calls the production “absolutely exhausting” and a “spiritual marathon,” adding that Cianfrance insisted he literally crash through a roof for authenticity. The actor also credits the director’s insistence that “there were no small scenes” for pushing him into unfamiliar dramatic territory. Co-star Dunst echoes that rigor, praising Tatum’s commitment to physically demanding set-ups in the real Charlotte locations where the crimes unfolded.
Manchester’s real-world exploits were far stranger than fiction: dubbed “Roofman,” he robbed at least 38 restaurants in nine states while remaining “businesslike and focused,” often advising victims to put on coats before locking them in freezers.
After escaping a North Carolina prison in 2004, he built a hidden apartment inside the walls of a Toys “R” Us, subsisting on baby food and sneaking charity toys to a local church—details dramatized in the new trailer. Manchester is still serving a 40-year sentence, though Tatum says he held “extensive phone conversations” with the inmate to ground the performance.
The project has been gestating since early 2024 and finished principal photography last December on 35 mm film with cinematographer Andrij Parekh, reinforcing Cianfrance’s preference for textured realism. Social-media buzz spiked months earlier when Tatum posted a Polaroid from the toy-store set with the caption, “Just broke out of prison and into a Toys R Us… how was your day,” hinting at the film’s playful tone. Whether that tone lands with juries remains to be seen, but for now the industry is watching “Roofman” as one of 2025’s most unconventional biopics.
