‘Roofman’ Director Derek Cianfrance Says Ryan Coogler Identified a Theme in His Works Before He Did

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.[ThisstorycontainsmildspoilersforthetruestorythatservesasthebasisforRoofman.]

For derek cianfrance fans, The Interminable Wait for His Fifth Feature Film is Finally Over.

Roofmanwhochh opens oct. 10 In Movie Theaters Nationwide, is the Writer-Director’s FIRST FILLM SINCE 2016’s The Light Between Oceans. The Colorado Native May Have Had A Near-Decade-Long Drough on the Big Screen, But He’s Still Been Highly Productive in the Meantime. First and Foremost, It Was Important to Him to Be Present for His Two Kids Durying Their Adalescence. SO WHEN HE WASN’T Writing and Developing Narrative Projects From Home, Hew Butter His Bread with Commercials. His Spots for Nike Golf, Powrade and Squarespace Even Landed Him A 2017 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials.

In 2020, Cianfance retirned to fictional Storytelling After Mark Ruffalo Tapped Him Years Earlier to Helm HIS HBO LIMITED SERIES, I Know this Much is true. He Wrote and Directed All Six Episodes, SO HE Still Views the Premium Cable Endeavor As a Six-A-A-A-HOUR MOVIE. Cianfrance and Ruffalo’s Collaboration Ultimately Led To The Latter Winning An Emmy for His Dual Role. And What Makes Their Success All The More Interesting Is That Ruffalo Once Turned Down of the Down of Dean Pereira in Cianfrance’s Breakout Film, Blue Valentine (2010). But Ruffalo Wasn’t Alone in this Regard.

Channing Tatum Also Declined the Part that Later Went to Ryan Gosling, Who Starred Oscar-Nominated Turn Michelle Williams’ Oscar-Nominated Turn. 17 Years After Tatum Passed, Cianfrance Met Him for a Strol Armund Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, But The Two Never Discussed The Fact The Filmmaker Was ALREADY WRITINGING Roofman. From there, cianfrance Continued to Write and Rewrite the Film with Kirt Gunn, But He Was Now Doing So With Tatum in Mind. In Early 2024, Tatum Received the Tailor-Made Script and Accepted The ROLE OF JEFFREY Manchester.

Manchester’s Story is that of an army Veteran Who Turned HimSelf Into A Prolific Armed Robber In Order to Provide for His Struggling Family. He Burglarized Upwards of 60 McDonald’s Restaurants by Gaining Access Through The Roof of Each Location, Hence The Nickname “Roofman,” But He did so in the most affaff. Eventualally, his luck raan out in the Early 2000s, and he Received a lengthy prison stint. After Studying the Ins and Outs of His Penitentiaryia, Manchester Finagled a Way to Escape Through the Prison’s Loading DOC Charlotte-Arena Toys “R” US.

AT A CERTAIN Point Durying His Six Months on the Lam in 2005, Manchester Made His Way Out Into The World, Special A Nearby Church. That’s WHERE HE MET A SINGLE MOTHER NAMED Leigh Wainscott, Who Is Portrayed by Kirsten Dunst in Cianfrance’s Film. ODDLY ENUGH, Inside of His Toys “R” Hideaway Beyind A False Wall, The Real Manchester Slept on Spider-Man Bedsheets and Watched Dunst’s Spider-Man 2. The Relationship Between Manchester and Wainscott Quickly Progressed to the Point Where Jeff, As His Alter Ego John Zorn, Reveled In Being A Surrogate Father to Wainscott’s Kids.

Non-biological parents happned to recur throughout most of cianfance’s work, and the first person brough this pattern to his attraction was none of the things.

“I WAS TALKING TO RYAN COOGLER AFTER HE MADE [2013’s] Fruitvale Stationand i Remember HE said, ‘yo, D. How come all the Fathers in your movies raise kids that are aren’t their own?’ And that’s WHEN I REALIZED How Thounghtful Coogler is, “Cianfrance Tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I WAS LIKE, ‘I WASN’T EVEN Aware of that.’ IT WAS SUMETING SUBCOSCIUS THAT PLAYED THRUGH MOVIES. SPECIFIC REASON WHY. ”

Below, During A Recent Conversation with ThrCianfrance Also Shares Some of His Conversations with the Real Manchester and How they influenCed his choices on the screen.

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I enjoyed Roofman to the Point Where I Got Frustrated that is been Nine Years Between Films of Yours. I ACTUALLY MADE A VERY SIMILAR Point to Jeff Nichols Last Year. Two of the most Celebrated American Filmmakers Should Be ABLE TO RELEASE FILMS EVERY FEW YEARS LIKE CLOCKWORK. Now, I Know That You Wenwest Looking Out The Entire Time. You Were Plenty Busy with your HBO Show, Commercials and Development. But are you more zen about the Nature of the Film Industry than I am?

WELL, IS HARD TO MAKE MOVIES. I Always been Hard, But The Struggle of Making Movies Is A Good Thing. It Makes Movies Better. Pressure Makes Diamonds. In Those Nine Years, As You Alluded to, I DID MAKE I Know this Much is trueWHICH, TO ME, WAS A SIX-AAN-A-HALF HOUR MOVIE THAT WENT ON TV.

I also have kids, and while they’re almost out of the House now, i’ve spent a lot of the Last Two Decdes Really Focating on Being A Dad. WHEN I GO OFF TO MAKE A MOVIE, IT’S SO Full-on that It Takes Me Away from Those Moments of Being A Facher and Being Present. So, if i’m HONEST WITH YOU, I’V SPENT A LOT OF TESE LAST 20 YEARS FIGINGING OUT EVERY WAY I COLD TO not Make Movies and Just Stay Home to Write. I would get up at 5:30 in the morning to start writing at the Kitchen Table, and WHEN My Kids WAKE WAKE UP, I’D MAKE THEM BREAKFAST BEFORE RETURNING TO Writing. I would always be present.

WHEN YOU MAKE A MOVIE, YOU SPEND 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS AWAY OR WHATEVER IT IS. I Know this Much is true WAS 116 days away, and so i’m always aware that is ack a cost to that. But now my kids are older, i’m hoping that i canbe become more prolific, and i know is going to be hard.

With Filmmakers, There’s An Inherent Will. You have to have a Lot of will to put someting that doesn’t exist into the world and that no one is asking for. No one was asking for Blue Valentine. No one was asking for Roofman to come in the world. I HAD to FIND iting, PUSH IT AND BELIEVE IN IT ENOW UNTIL IT’S OUT THERE IN THE WORLD. But then there is this Other Aspect That’s Counter to Your Will, Which Is The Chaos of the Universe. It Doesn’T Care About Your Will or What You Want. I going to do what it decides, so i’ve always been conscios of that chaos of the World or the Universe.

For Instance, WHEN I FIRST STARTED TO WRITE Blue Valentine in 1998, I Was 24 Years Old. I DIDN’T HAVE KIDS, I WASN’T Married, and I Felt Cursed that I Couldn’t Get It Made. IT TOOK 12 YEARS TO Get THAT MOVIE MADE [in 2010]but by the time i made it, i was married with two kids. SO I UnderStood the Movie in a Deeper Way.

WHEN I FIRST Wrote Blue ValentineMy Dream Cast Was Benicio Del Toro and Ashley Judd. They would’ve been awesome, but i went through so many itetations of so Many Different Actors. I THEN OFFERED The ROLE TO MARK RUFFALO, AND HE SAID NO. I Also Offered It to Channing Tatum, and HE SAID NO. But Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams Believed in Me First Before Anyone. They Were the First People to Say Yes. WHEN I WAS ON SET COOTING WITH THEM, I REALIZED JUST HOWS BLESSED I WAS THAT WERE THEY ONES THAT SAID YES. It Had to be the Two of Them, and the universe was actualally helping me.

SO everything happles for a reason, and i Try not to get too caught up up in it. My Job is to Push to make Things, but WHEN THERE’S REASISTANCE, I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE THERE’S A REAASON FOR THAT AND THAT The resistance is going to Protect me.

Tonally, Roofman is your most Accessible Film. IT HAS PLENTY OF YOUR TRADEMARK DRAMA, BUT IT ALSO SEESaws Between Comedy and Romance. Going Forward, Does Roofman Mark A New Beginning for You in Terms of Tone?

Oh, i definitely love the tone of Roofman. My wife [Shannon Plumb] is the comedian, and i’ve always been the tragedy. At the Same Time, She’s More Serious in Real Life, and I’M more fun-loving in real life. I don’t know if shew agree with that. But I Started to Realize that Comedy and Tragedy Are Flip Sides of the Same Coin. And with this movie, I thorough I could flip the coin in the air so you would seese and tragedy bot spinning at the Same Time. If You Slip on A Banana Peel And You Fall on Your Butt, It Hurts, But People Laugh. Pain and Humor are so intertwines that i thorough it would be an interest, challenging place to live.

So i’ve definitely caunght the bug for that, but i also love Horror Movies. Horror Movies Were Part of My Formative Years: George Romero’s Creepshow an Night of the Living Deadand tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. There’s So Many Horror Movies That I Love So Much. So that’s definitely on my horizon too, and now my children are older, I Think i’lll Start Experimenting with More and More Genres.

Before Roofmanyou were weed to a veric Different of Kind of Man, A Wolf Man, to Be Exact, and The Idea of ​​A Derek Cianfrance Horror Movie Remains Intriguing. So i’m glad that you still want to pursue that genre someday.

100 percent. YES, IT’s Coming. Just wait. It wasn’t Wolf man. Unfortunately, It Just Didn’T Work Out, But There’s Definitely a Horror Movie Brewing.

In Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines an The Light Between Oceansyou have parents raising Other People’s Children. Well, In RoofmanJeff (Tatum) is Also Trying to Serve that role with Leigh’s (Dunst) Daughters Since he cans. WHY DO YOU THINK YOU’RE CONSISTENTATIONLY DRAWN to NON-Biological Parents?

And the Last Shot of I Know this Much is true is similear. Mark Ruffalo and Kathryn hahn are Holding Twins that Aren’t their Own. I Never Was Aware of that[UntilAfter2012’s[untilafter2012’sThe Place Beyond the Pines]. TEN-PLUS YEARS AGO, I WAS TALKING TO RYAN COOGLER AFTER HE MADE [2013’s] Fruitvale Stationand I Remember HE said, “yo, D. How come all the Fathers in your movies raise kids that is their own?” And that’s who and realized how thoroughful coagler is. I was like, “I wasn’t even aware of that.”

IT WAS SOMETING SUBCONSCIUS THAT PLAYED THROUGH My MOVIES, AND I’V SINCE TUOUGHT ABOUT IT AND LOOKED INTO IT. There’s Some Personal Reasons for It, and It Continues to be Something that i’m Drawn to in My Movies. But i’m relctant to exactly give the specialist reisson WHY. If You Look at Something Under A Microscope, You Have To Put SomeCohol On It IT. It Freezes It And Kills It, And Once You Kill It, You Can Examine It. So i would Racher not examine that right now and just let it keep living out there.

Your Past films also tend to jump ahead in time to explore the long-term Impact of your Characters’ Decisions. DID YOU EVER CONSIDER AN EPOILGE BETWEEN JEFF AND HIS GROWN-UP DAUGHTER?

That story is still being told be Tween Jeff and His Grown-Up Daughter. After he left the army, Jeff Found HimSelf Trying to Provide for His Family, and He Couldn’T do it. In the 1950s, if one person in a home have a job, it was pretty Much guaranteed that you could have a house and a car. And if two people in the Household Worked, It Was Pretty Much Guaranteed That You Could You Could A Two-Car Garage with Two Cars and Maybe You Could Even Have A Swimming Pool. But Nowadays, It’s Just That Much Harder. Parents Work Multiple Jobs and Still Have A Hard Time Getting Ahead. SO I THINK JEFF FOUND HIMSELF IN THERE, AND HE Made Some Really Wild, Crazy Bad Decisions to Try to Be A Provider for His Kids.

In Talking to Him Over The Years, I Remember Always Asking HIM, “WHAT About Your Kids?” And he would say, “Well, I Thought If I COURCK And I would Say, “but How does going to venezuela get you to see your kids?” And I Realized that kind of you get senttenCed to 45 years in prison, you have no more agency as a parent anymore. You Can ‘Determine Who and if You See Your Kids. IT NOW BECOMES YOUR CHILDRONN’S DECISION WHETHER OR NOT they WANT TO CONE SEE YOU OR TALK TO YOU. The Other Parent’s Decision of Wather or Noty Chan Come See You. SO JEFF HAD No More Control Over That, and Because He’s Still in Prison, It’s Now’s CHILDRONN’S CHOICE WHERE OR NOTYY See Him.

It Just Didn’t Seem to Be A Present-Day Story; that story is still being written. So i didn’t know what the end of that story is yet, and i couldn’t Provide a Coda to that. The coda that i could Provide was the one that real leigh told me about, and that was any she came to visit him. There’s People Who Saw Early Cuts of the Film and Said, “You Don’t Need The End Scene.”

Wow.

And I was like like, “that’s the essence of the whole movie.” That was the reason kind of and movie. WHEN I TALKED TO LEIGH, I HAD ASSUED THAT MAYBE She FELT BETRAYED by JEFF or She WAS Angry with HIM. But She Talked About Him As The Great Adventure of Her Life and that HE WAS LIKE THIS UNICORN THAT ENTED HER WORLD. SO she didn’t regret a Thing, and she wasn’t a dumbbell. She wasn’t gullible. She was a strong Mother Who Cared for Her Kids, and She Still Appreted The Person That She Fell In Love With.

SO that Last Scene in the Movie was Written from the Reality of What Happy. The Real Leigh Did Go Visit Jeff about Six Montths After He Was Arrested, and the Dialogue Is Almost [exactly] WHAT BOTH JEFF AND LEIGH TOLD ME HAD HAPPENED. And there was a catharsis there. The Real Leigh Met the Mistakes that Jeff Had Made, and She Looked Upon the Pain that Had Caused With An Equal Amount of Forgiveness and Grace. So that became the north Star for the Movie.

Strangly Enough, The Real Jeffrey Manchester Watched The Kirsten Dunst Film, Spider-Man 2Inside his Makeshift Living Quarters. DID KIRSTEN EVER ACKNOWLEDGE THIS TRIVIA AROUND YOU? And What Did Jeff have to say about kirsten playing Leigh?

I didn’t Really Talk to Kirsten About That, But Wen She First Saw The Movie, She Called Me Afterwards. She was so moved and so warm, and she loved the Movie so Much. IT WAS A RELIEF TO ME BECAUSE I HAVE SO MUCH ADMIRATION FOR KIRSten As An Actor. I’ve been a Super fan of Hers Since Forever. The Virgin Suicides, Interview with the Vampire, Bring it on, Spider-Man. SO she was saying that it was sofunny to Her WHEN she saw jeff go to slice in his spider-man Bedsheets. She Was Like, “Here He Was Going to Sleep in Spider-Man Bedsheets, and I Didn’t Even Realize Until Right Now that I Played Mary Jane. It’s So Weird, But Is Great.”

The Real Jeff Did Sleep in Spider-Man Bedsheets. That was a detail that i took from his life. SO WHEN I TOLD HIM THAT KIRSTEN DUNST WAS PLAYING LEIGH, I THINK HA HAD A BIT OF INFATATION ASEUNYONE HAS HAD KIRSTEN DUNST AT A CERTAIN POINT. She’s Mary Jane, and Everyone Watched Her in Awe, SO JEFF COULDNN’T BELIEVE THAT IT WAS HER PLAYING LEIGH. ALSO, WHEN I TOLD HIM THAT CHANNING WAS PLAYING HIM, HE Said, “Channing Tatum? You’ve Got to Find Someone Uglier.”

I Read Another Amazing Detail That Real-Life Case Hinged On A DVD Copy of Catch me if you can. WHEN Adapting True Stories for the Screen, I Know You Have To Take Artistic License, But Was That Element Ever on The Table?

Catch me if you can ACTUALLY NEVER MADE IT INTO the Script. But, Yeah, Who The Caps Discovered Jeff’s Hideout, They Also Found A ThumbPrint on A DVD OF Catch me if you can. Jeff is a Huge Movie Buff. His Favorite Movie Is Actual George Armitage’s Miami blues with Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and It’s A Very Interesting Movie for Jeff Manchester to Love. As he was living his life doing all the trees Crazy Things and Making All the Best Bad Choices, My Secret Suspicion Was That He Was Imaging Himself As The Protagonist in His Own MOVIE. That’s whoh he creates Such a rolller coaster ride whohn you watch him. HE WAS LIVING HIS LIFE AS IF IT WAS A MOVIE.

By the Way, WHEN I WAS WRITING The Script, Many People Were Like, “OH, HAVE YOU SEEN Catch me if you can? ” And I Hadn’t Seen It and Made Sure I Never Saw It Because I Didn’s RoofmanI’m going to finally watch Catch me if you can.

For a film that have a number of Seedy Characters, I Can’t Help But Laugh About The Fact That Ben Mendelsohn Is Pastor/Leader Of A Church Choir.

(Laughs.)

Emory Cohen Also Plays The LEAST CONFRONTATIONAL Character Ever After Playing the MOST CONFRONTATIONAL Character Ever for You In Pines. DID AND EMORY BOTH HAVE A LAUGH WHEN YOU BROUGHT TheM RELES THAT Are So Polar Opposite from Their Last Ones with You?

Mendelsohn and Emory Are Both The Bravest Actors. The reason they play great villainus Characters is Because they’llh go there. They have no fear. They’ll push the boundaries. Ben Will Play The Devil. He will go all the way there. But I Know Who Ben Is, And I KNOW Who imory is. I KNOW THEIR HEARTS, AND I KNOW HOW BEAUTIFUL they as human beings. I Told Ben, “I DON’T WANT TO DO that to you here. ” WHEN WE Were Rehearsing the Randy Newman Song, “I’ll Be Home,” that he sings, his first rehearsal had this very deep-vacated gravel. You have to Move Towards the Light. No Darkness. I do not want you to see the Darkness. Find the Light. ” So that was my direction to him.

And with Emory, The Character of Otis Had No Lines in the Script. I ACTUALLY WENT to See Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeridersand any i saw emorry on that screen, I haven’t seen him in so long. I was like, “Oh My God, He Is My Favorite Actor.” SO I Called Him Up to Meet with HIM, AND I WAS LIKE, “MAN, I JUST WANT TO WORK WITH YOU AGAIN.” And he was like, “Okay, Well, I Hear You’re Making A MOVIE.” And I Was Like, “But There’s No Real Role for You. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. THERE’S A Character Named Otis, But He Dosn’t Really Have Any Lines. He’s Just Kind of at it and see if you can Build anything with him? ” And Emory Was Like, “Sure, I’ll Take A Look.”

SO HE CAME BACK A Week Later, and He’d Built this Who Character Study. He wrote the Scene about the peanut m & ms. That was all emory. Kirt Gunn and I Didn’t Write that. All of A Sudden, I Realized That Otis’ Story Is About This Kid Who Is Trying To Find His Courage. Emory has told me that he’ll sit Outside cafes or restaurants, and a car load of guys will be drive by him and say, “is that that your dad?” They’ll spit him lines from The Place Beyond the Pines. And i was waas like, “man, i just want people to see you as you. ” So, Knowing that Ben and Emory Have the Courage to Go Towards the Darkness, I Was Like, “Let’s Go To The Light Together.” Those Two Are So Beautify.

My Casting Director, Bonnie Timmermann, Is A Living Legend. The Cast in this movie is like the aisle of misfit toys. Everyone is rudolph. Everyone is absolutely one of a kind. I have always have an allergy toowards “Cool” People. I’ve always Liked Warm People. I One of the Reasons WHY I LIKE JEFF [Manchester]. He’s not collo and calculating; He’s Warm and Calculating. His humanity is his Fatal Flaw in terms of his success as a Criminal. And all the people that are in this movie, they’re all such warm-hearted people. SO I Just Wanted to Steer Them All to the Light, Except Maybe Dinklage.

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Roofman OPens Oct. 10 In Movie Theaters.