Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542693
The logline for Roofman was all I needed to read in order to grasp the immense Art Department challenge ahead: "After escaping prison, rooftop robber Jeffrey Manchester secretly lives inside a 2004 Toys "R" Us, surviving undetected for six months while planning his next move." Having collaborated with director Derek Cianfrance extensively, I knew that authenticity would be our North Star. It was obvious that we were not going to build a stage set, or use VFX set extensions. We had to create a period Toys "R" Us with a believable footprint, real merchandise, changing inventory, functioning electronics and revolving displays. All this on a production with a total budget of $19 million. To reach our high bar for authenticity, my goal was to find and rehabilitate a closed-down Toys "R" Us store. I researched the company's decades- long history, and zeroed in on its iconic 1990s facade of white brick walls and colorful geometric lines. If Le Corbusier would have designed a toy store facade, I thought, this would be it. The Toys "R" Us chain filed for bankruptcy in 2018, so the producers and I started a nationwide search for vacant stores, aided by old lists and Google Street View. We soon discovered that most stores had either been demolished, converted or vandalized. The original store where Jeff Manchester hid, located in Charlotte, NC, has become a mega-church. In an amazing location coincidence, the production found a vacant Toys "R" Us store right outside of Charlotte. All of its signage was gone, and the interior was a shell, completely gutted and stripped. However, considering there were only a few vacant stores still standing in the entire country, we considered this a small miracle. Though access was not guaranteed, we adopted an A B i g - B o x S t o r e o f D r e a m s R O O F M A N B Y I N B A L W E I N B E R G , P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A. TOYS "R" US DRESSED EXTERIOR. SET PHOTO BY DAVI RUSSO. B. LOCATION INTERIOR AS SEEN ON FIRST SCOUT. SET PHOTO. A B