The founder: Directed by John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks), The Founder features the true story of how Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a struggling 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. Writer Robert Siegel (The Wrestler) details how Kroc maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire.