McDonald’s early history looks set to hit the big screen in a tale of corporate intrigue described as being in the style of Oscar-winning Facebook movie, The Social Network.
John Lee Hancock, director of The Blind Side and Walt Disney biopic Saving Mr Banks, is in talks to direct the project, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Titled The Founder, the biopic will focus on the 1950s battle for control of the nascent fast-food restaurant chain between founders Mac and Dick McDonald and Illinois businessman Ray Kroc.
Kroc, a salesman known for his aggressive business practices, became involved with McDonald’s in 1954, a year after the company began franchising its fast-food system, name and restaurant design. By 1961 he had moved from selling the brothers eight “multi-mixer” milkshake machines to purchasing the company in its entirety for $2.7m (£1.7m). The McDonald siblings retained their original restaurant in San Bernardino, California, but were forced to rename it “The Big M” as they had failed to retain rights to the original name. Kroc later forced the brothers out of business by opening his own McDonald’s restaurant nearby.
The business’s new owner is also 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. Kroc 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.
The Founder is being put together by the FilmNation and The Combine production companies, with the tone of the screenplay by The Wrestler’s Robert Siegel described as similar to The Social Network and another Oscar-winning tale of ruthless greed, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Hancock’s 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.
