As announced last month, Saving Mr. Banks' director John Lee Hancock's next film will be** The Founder**, a corporate bopic about the early years and rise to global domination of the McDonald's fast food corporation. FilmNation and Jeremy Renner's company The Combine are producing, and it looks as if the project may now have found its lead. Basking in his Birdman-based career resurgence, Michael Keaton is in talks to play Ronald McDonald Ray Kroc{
The story revolves around Kroc, who encountered Mac And Dick McDonald running a small but efficient burger business in 1950s California. Recognising franchise potential in their business method, Kroc went into partnership with the brothers, and eventually bought their share of the business for a reasonably paltry $3m in 1961. He then went about turning it into the ubiquitous multi-billion dollar corporation we know today.
Unsurprisingly, the comparison being most bandied about is David Fincher's Facebook drama The Social Network. But The Hollywood Reporter also, intriguingly, likens The Founder to There Will Be Blood. Whether that just refers to the focus on a ruthless businessman, or whether The Founder will somehow delve into that tonally gothic territory remains to be seen.
Robert Siegel (Big Fan) wrote the screenplay, and Keaton apparently met with Hancock on Monday, when an offer was made. Negotiations are now underway regarding the terms of Keaton's acceptance...
There's still no start date for The Founder, so its potential headliner has some time to make his decision. We also await news of the rest of the cast, which will reveal whether Renner is planning to step in front of the camera as well as produce.