According to The Hollywood Reporter, two-time Academy Award nominee Laura Dern (Wild, Jurassic Park) is in talks to join star Michael Keaton (Birdman) and director John Lee Hancock (The Blindside) in McDonald’s biopic The Founder.
Likened to both David Fincher’s The Social Network and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, The Founder will tell the story of how a salesman named Ray Kroc teamed with two brothers, Richard and Maurice “Mac” McDonald, to launch what would soon become an international fast food chain that now serves 68 million customers every day.
Dern will portray Kroc’s long-suffering and neglected first wife Ethel, whom he divorced in 1961. He would marry twice more before his death in 1984.
Hancock will work from a screenplay by Big Fan and The Wrestler scribe Robert Siegel with FilmNation producing alongside Don Handfield and Jeremy Renner’s The Combine.
The Weinstein Co. will release The Founder on November 25, 2016.
Dern will next be seen on September 25 in 99 Homes opposite Andrew Garfield, and is currently filming an untitled drama for director Kelly Reichardt (Meek’s Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy) co-starring Kristin Stewart and Michelle Williams.
