Derek Cianfrance attends the TIFF Tribute Awards during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival at The Fairmont Royal York Hotel on September 07, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text [This story contains mild spoilers for the true story that serves as the basis for Roofman.] For Derek Cianfrance fans, the interminable wait for his fifth feature film is finally over. Roofman, which opens Oct. 10 in movie theaters nationwide, is the writer-director's first film since 2016's The Light Between Oceans. The Colorado native may have had a near-decade-long drought 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 during their adolescence. So when he wasn't writing and developing narrative projects from home, he would butter his bread with commercials. His spots for Nike Golf, Powerade and Squarespace even landed him a 2017 DGA award for outstanding directorial achievement in commercials. Related Stories Movies 'Awards Chatter' Podcast: Channing Tatum on 'Roofman,' Stripping and Overcoming Imposter Syndrome Movies 2025 Gotham Week Honors Awards Recipients Revealed In 2020, Cianfrance returned 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-and-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 the role 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 opposite Michelle Williams' Oscar-nominated turn. 17 years after Tatum passed, Cianfrance met him for a stroll around Brooklyn's Prospect Park, but the two never discussed the fact that the filmmaker was already writing 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 affable way possible. Eventually, his luck ran out in the early 2000s, and he received a lengthy prison stint. After studying the ins and outs of his penitentiary, Manchester finagled a way to escape through the prison's loading dock, and needing a place to hideout until the heat died down, he found refuge in the walls of a Charlotte-area Toys "R" Us. At a certain point during his six months on the lam in 2005, Manchester made his way out into the world, specifically 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 enough, inside of his Toys "R" hideaway behind 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 happened to recur throughout most of Cianfrance's work, and the first person who brought this pattern to his attention was none other than Ryan Coogler. "I was talking to Ryan Coogler after he made [2013's] Fruitvale Station, and I remember he said, 'Yo, D. How come all the fathers in your movies raise kids that aren't their own?' And that's when I realized how thoughtful Coogler is," Cianfrance tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I was like, 'I wasn't even aware of that.' It was something subconscious that played through my movies. There's some personal reasons for it, and it continues to be something that I'm drawn to in my movies. But I'm reluctant to exactly give the specific reason why." Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Cianfrance also shares some of his conversations with the real Manchester and how they influenced his choices on the screen. *** I enjoyed Roofman to the point where I got frustrated that it's 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 weren't just looking out the window the