In the thick of his Birdman-induced career resurgence, actor Michael Keaton was announced as the lead of The Founder, a forthcoming biopic about McDonald’s pitchman-turned-boss Ray Kroc. The film, which also signed Parks and Recreation alum Nick Offerman a few months later, was set to recount Kroc’s rise to power at the expense of his business partners during the 1950s. Yet aside from these initial announcements and a few blips on the radar, no major news about The Founder has seen the light of day for the past year.
That all changed on Thursday when USA Today premiered the exclusive first trailer for the John Lee Hancock-directed and Robert D. Siegel-scripted film. Most of the two and a half-minute video goes to Keaton’s Kroc and Offerman’s Dick McDonald, one of the two McDonald brothers. Between a cast that also includes Laura Dern and the behind-the-camera talent of Hancock (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks) and Siegel (The Wrestler), it seems like a film likely to turn up in conversations about awards contenders. The script was one of the top entries in the 2014 Black List, which names the industry’s favorite unproduced screenplays, and became the subject of an intense bidding war the following year.
The Founder hits theaters August 5.
(Via USA Today)
