Michael Keaton Takes on the Role of Ray Kroc in John Lee Hancock's ‘The Founder’

John Lee Hancock's The Founder will hit theaters in the U.S. Nov. 25, 2016, the heart of awards season, according to a report byThe Hollywood Reporter.

The biopic stars Michael Keaton - fresh off his turn in the Oscar-winning Birdman - as Ray Kroc, who built McDonald's into the largest fast-food chain in the world. FilmNation and The Combine are producing the indie film, with The Weinstein Co. snapping up U.S. rights.

Written by Robert Siegel (Big Fan), The Founder chronicles how Ray Kroc, 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.

The tone of the script has been described as being akin to The Social Network and There Will Be Blood.

TWC has had good luck launching awards contenders over the Thanksgiving holiday, a crop that includes The King's Speech andThe Imitation Game.

In another news, Keaton will play as Robby Robinson in the upcoming movie Spotlight. The movie is about Boston Globe's "Spotlight" team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative unit in the United States, and their coverage of the Massachusetts Catholic sex abuse scandal, for which the Globe won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The Globe's coverage is among the most celebrated U.S. journalism projects of the twenty-first century. The film also stars Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James, Stanley Tucci, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup.