Before we see him reprise his role as Beetlejuice or take on Spider-Man as The Vulture, it’s time to check out Michael Keaton as the man who helped usher the USA into an era of morbid obesity. For years, as a child, I remember seeing a plaque on the wall of every McDonald’s I’d ever set foot in. It always proclaimed Ray Croc as the founder of the company. It turns out that there’s a lot more to that story, and much like what goes into the McRib, a lot of it isn’t pretty.
Written by Robert Siegel (BIG FAN), THE FOUNDER is a drama that tells the true story of how Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. He maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire.