“Roofman” director Derek Cianfrance wanted everything to be real for his latest film, and he didn’t want to cut any corners. So the film’s production designer, Inbal Weinberg, was in charge of recreating a Toys “R” Us store circa 2004.
Weinberg went on a nationwide search to see if any stores still existed and found there were hardly any left after the retailer filed for bankruptcy in 2018. She eventually found a deserted Toys “R” Us outside of Charlotte, N.C., where they would be filming.
“There was nothing there. The floor had been scraped, and we really had to start from scratch,” Weinberg says.
“Roofman” follows the true story of Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), a man who robbed McDonald’s restaurants by cutting holes in their roofs, earning him the nickname “Roofman.” He’s eventually caught and sent to prison, but he escapes and spends months hiding out in a toy store.
Creating the space proved to be a challenge, as Cianfrance requested everything be “as layered as possible” with real toys in the background. “Derek said, ‘I want Channing to be able to walk around and grab whatever he wants, and if he grabs something, behind that something needs to be another item,’” Weinberg explains.
Since the set was a massive 24,000 square feet, Weinberg and her team had conversations about how to come up with that many toys. “We said, ‘Can we remake them? Can we buy them? Should we fabricate similar ones?’” She and her team gathered thousands of images, as well as catalogs from the time period. She also made the team watch Toys “R” Us employee instructional videos that she found online.
She credits the art department for pulling items like Tickle Me Elmo dolls, Bad Buggy toy cars, and even a Hillary Clinton Barbie doll to fill out the store with period-accurate toys and video games. “That was all them,” she says.
Adding to the challenge was the idea that the store needed to change according to the seasons, since the Roofman hid out for several months. “We had to showcase different graphics, like back-to-school time, Halloween and Thanksgiving,” she says.
Weinberg had access to police files from the case to visualize Jeffrey’s hiding space behind the bike display. But the crew got even more info from Manchester himself, who was in touch with the director. “Derek had weekly calls with Jeffrey and talked to him all the time. He explained that it was behind a bike rack and in the wall,” says Weinberg. “So, it was a good conversation with Derek and our DP, Andrij Parekh, to figure out what this space could be visually, while also making it a cocoon. It was important for Channing to build his own nest.” Little by little, it becomes a warm and cozy space.
Davi Russo
The crew also built in a little surprise for Tatum. “We got some of the action figures from Marvel, including the one Channing is. So that was really cute for him to find his own action figure,” says Weinberg.
