The Director of ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ is Making a Movie About the Origins of McDonald’s

From the origins of Mary Poppins to the origins of the Big Mac empire: ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ director John Lee Hancock’s next project is a film about the rise of the McDonald’s fast food empire. But before you roll your eyes, this movie sounds much different from his previous Oscar-bait dramas—the script was written by Robert Siegel, the filmmaker behind the (very, very) dark Patton Oswalt comedy ‘Big Fan.’

THR reports that Hancock is negotiating to direct ‘The Founder,’ a film about the history of McDonald’s. The script for ‘The Founder’ has been compared to both ‘The Social Network’ and ‘There Will Be Blood,’ which makes this sound much darker than Hancock’s prior films—the director previously helmed ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ and ‘The Blind Side,’ both of which were light dramas targeted at families.

What makes ‘The Founder’ sound so intriguing is the script by Siegel, who also wrote and directed the dark indie ‘Big Fan,’ and provided the screenplay for Darren Aronofsky’s ‘The Wrestler.’ (Siegel’s most recent credit is for writing the DreamWorks animated film ‘Turbo,’ which … what?) ‘The Founder’ tells the true story of Ray Kroc, an Illinois salesman who stumbles across brothers Mac and Dick McDonald, who were operating a small burger joint in southern California in the ‘50s. Kroc was impressed by the system the brothers were using to churn out their food quickly and efficiently. Sensing the potential, Kroc managed to snag the concept from the McDonald brothers to create an incredibly profitable empire—one that’s worth billions of dollars today, and continues to make vast profits on the backs of underpaid workers and those gullible enough to believe that opening their own McDonald’s franchise might net them similar profits.

That definitely doesn’t sound like another one of Hancock’s feel-good holiday season films at all.