Fresh off his Golden Globe win and Oscar nomination for Birdman, Michael Keaton is in talks to star in The Founder for FilmNation. We first reported on this project back in December, when John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks, The Blind Side) signed on to direct. This biopic charts the origins of the fast food empire McDonald's.

Michael Keaton is in talks to play Ray Kroc, an Illinois salesman who discovered a Southern California hamburger restaurant in the 1950s, run by Mac and Dick McDonald. Impressed with their speedy and efficient methods, and seeing franchise potential, Ray Kroc eventually pulled the company out from under the McDonald brothers, creating a massive fast food empire. The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Michael Keaton met with John Lee Hancock on Monday, received an offer earlier this week, and is now in talks to star.

John Lee Hancock will direct from a script by Robert D. Siegel (The Wrestler, Big Fan), with FilmNation producing alongside Jeremy Renner and Don Handfield's company, The Combine. The script is said to be in the same vein as The Social Network and There Will Be Blood. No production schedule was given. Michael Keaton signed on last week to star in Warner Bros.' Kong: Skull Island.