First Bite. Will "The Founder" Serve Tasty Drama?
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 1:42PM As iconic logos go, it's impossible to beat those golden arches. Smart teaser work, then, to instantly brand your movie. On the other hand...
Does McDonalds really scream "Major Motion Picture" or will it have people thinking i saw a doc about that once.
The presence of the newly dazzling Michael Keaton (quite a comeback these past two years!) should help win the film attention. Keaton is the businessman who wrestled away control of McDonalds in the 1950s and made it into an empire... but not without a lot of behind the scenes drama apparently. The supporting cast includes John Carrol Lynch and Nick Offerman as the actual McDonald brothers, and Laura Dern as Keaton's wife. Patrick Wilson and Linda Cardellini play another couple though we're not sure how they fit into the story. The film opens on August 5th from the Weinstein Co who keep claiming they're determined to make the summer work for Oscar launches (after having helped making the last quarter mandatory over the last 20+ years).
The screenplay is by Robert Seigel (who wrote The Wrestler and Big Fan). Director John Lee Hancock has directed one Best Picture nominee to date (The Blind Side) and one intended Oscar player that didn't get invited to the playground (Saving Mr Banks) but his best film remains The Rookie (2002) don't you think? Part of the one-two punch (with Far From Heaven -- odd bedfellows!) that should have been the great sticky comeback for Dennis Quaid a dozen plus years back. (We're distracted by comeback stories of late thanks to Kyle's Easter post.)
Do you have high hopes for The Founder, Oscar-related or otherwise?
Reader Comments (20)
I do have high expectations, both for quality and Oscar. Workhorse director, excellent writer, plum cast. This is very likely to be Keaton's second nomination. Should probably be his third (what were critics doing, puffing up Ruffalo), but them's the breaks. If this is very good, I'd predict anywhere from five-seven nominations.
Picture
Actor, Michael Keaton
Supporting Actor, Nick Offerman
Supporting Actress, Laura Dern
Original Screenplay, Robert D. Siegel
Production Design
Original Score, Carter Burwell
Even if it's positively received, I can't imagine anything past Keaton getting Oscar attention.
Keaton has deserved two Oscars in just the past two years. I only hope that his well-earned Oscar comes for a performance at the level of Birdman and Spotlight
I'm not sure anymore. It looks so 1996.
I don't know about this one... I trust Laura Dern's project choices, though. Maybe the material is better than some of John Lee Hancock's previous films. Only time will tell.
I feel like the title, the poster, and the subject all kind of clash and feel dubious to me. I'm not convinced that this needed to be made into a film.
McDonalds is a pretty big thing (obviously), so the story of its creation certainly piques my interest. In saying that, I've never seen any of Hancock's films and there's no trailer, so I can't say whether I'm truly excited or not just yet.
I have a nagging suspicion that Keaton will finally get the Oscar attention he deserved...except he'll be robbing someone else.
God, Redmayne's Oscar is looking worse and worse in retrospect.
It looked awful at the time,that face he makes ugh.
I hope it's really good, because if so Dern will surely get a strong Oscar campaign and Academy Award Winner Laura Dern sounds damn good to me.
The film had me at "written by the writer of THE WRESTLER" (although Hancock is no Aronofsky).
Reading that Patty Duke has passed away and how Dustin Hoffman abused Meryl in the set of Kramer vs. Kramer just made my day much more depressing.
RIP Ms. Duke and RIP any last respect I had for Dustin.
What a Kroc.
Please, give Michael Keaton his overdue Oscar.
Reading that Patty Duke has passed away and how Dustin Hoffman abused Meryl in the set of Kramer vs. Kramer just made my day much more depressing.
RIP Ms. Duke and RIP any last respect I had for Dustin.
Heartbroken for Patty Duke. The Hoffman slap story is pretty widely known.
This looks good, but the major hurdle for me will be Nick Offerman. I can't see him as anything other than Ron Swanson at this point. I assume he will be playing a serious role here. So when he shows up on screen doing his best seriousness, I will immediately think of 'you had me at meat tornado' and dissolve into giggles.
I mean, it could be another one of those dire biopics like the Greg Kinnear windscreen wiper one.
You had me at Michael Keaton then lost me at John Lee Hancock.
Yeah, Hancock has me worried. This could be very generic and devoid of any charm, personality or style. But if it results in nominations for Keaton and Dern then hopefully it will be worth it (and worthy).
Michael Keaton and Nick Offerman? Count me in.
For the umpteenth time: It will take Daniel Day-Lewis himself to wrest this Oscar from Keaton's hands.
"Patrick Wilson and Linda Cardellini play another couple though we're not sure how they fit into the story"
They´re playing Rollie and Joan Smith- McDonalds franchise manager and his wife-and it shouldn´t be a spoiler because it´s a biopic so you could just read Ray Kroc´s bio anywhere, Joan Smith (Cardellini), ended up being Ms Kroc- a big personality on her own.
I sense they´re trying to hide this fact as much as possible as Cardellini may be the black horse here. Keaton himself said in an interview about her performance "She´s AMAZING". That should be a clue that if someone else gets a supportive nomination that might be Cardellini as Joan Kroc not Dern.