A film about how the McDonald's burger empire came to be, from the director of Saving Mr Banks. Meet The Founder...
NewsUPDATE:
Just a couple of updates since we first ran this story in December 2014. We now know that Oscar-nominee Michael Keaton is set to take on the role of Ray Kroc in the movie, and thus will play the man who turned McDonald's into the empire we know it as today. Furthermore, The Weinstein Company has now picked up the distribution rights to the movie, and the film will shoot later this year.
Here's our original story from November...
Right then: how about McDonald's: Origins? That's not a bad title to start with. For John Lee Hancock, the director of Saving Mr Banksand The Blind Side(and the screenwriter of the underrated Kevin Costner/Clint Eastwood movie A Perfect World) is tackling the rise of McDonald's for his next movie.
Robert Siegel has penned the screenplay for the project, which will go under the name of The Founder. And it'll follow the story of Ray Kroc, an Illinois salesman, and what happened when he met Mac and Dick McDonald in the 1950s. It might skip over the impact of the firm's burgers on the world, and we doubt Morgan Spurlock is consulting. But you never know.
(Well, we probably do in this case).
The Hollywood Reporter broke the story, and it suggests that the screenplay's tone has "been described as being akin to The Social Network and There Will Be Blood." There are presumably gags there, but it was a late night, and we can't think of many. Help yourself in the comments.
We'd imagine that the plan is to go into production on The Founder next year.
THR.
