Michael Keaton is in talks to star in The Founder, a cold-blooded story of corporate intrigue centred on the early years of McDonald’s, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Fresh off a Golden Globe win and Oscar nomination for his turn as a washed-up former star of superhero movies in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, Keaton is in line to take the lead role of businessman Ray Kroc in John Lee Hancock’s film.
Hancock, director of The Blind Side and Walt Disney biopic Saving Mr Banks, signed on to take charge of the cameras last month. His previous films saw Sandra Bullock win the best actress Oscar for her turn as Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side, and Emma Thompson receive Golden Globe and Bafta nominations for her portrayal of Mary Poppins creator PL Travers in Saving Mr Banks.
The Founder will focus on the 1950s battle for control of the nascent fast-food restaurant chain between Kroc, a salesman known for his aggressive business practices, and founders Mac and Dick McDonald. The former became involved with McDonald’s in 1954, a year after the company began franchising its fast-food system, name and restaurant design, and by 1961 had purchased the company in its entirety for $2.7m (£1.7m).
The tone of the screenplay by The Wrestler’s Robert Siegel is described as similar to The Social Network and another Oscar-winning tale of proto-corporate backstabbing, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Kroc is said to have reneged on a handshake arrangement for the McDonalds to receive 1% on gross sales at all the chain’s restaurants, which would have brought the brothers and their heirs more than $100m a year if it had been honoured. He later went on to build the firm into the most successful fast-food operation in the world: there are now 35,000 outlets in the McDonald’s Corporation, serving 68m customers daily in 119 countries.
Keaton reportedly met Hancock on Monday and received an offer to star earlier this week. The 63-year-old is also in line to appear in King Kong prequel Skull Island in the wake of the success of Birdman.
