The Founder trailer: Michael Keaton stars as McDonalds founder

Ray Kroc is generally considered the founder of McDonald’s, which can get a bit confusing. Wouldn’t that designation properly go to the person the restaurant chain is actually named after? Based on the first trailer, The Founder will tackle that question head-on. The upcoming biopic stars Michael Keaton as Kroc, a struggling milkshake salesman who eventually transitions to running a fast food empire so large it’s basically “America’s new church.”

Keaton’s Kroc begins the trailer by identifying “persistence” as his key to success, but the answer is actually closer to “franchises.” The McDonald’s brothers (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch) invented the fast-food style, but Kroc realizes the money-making potential of expanding the brand. When the brothers don’t go along with his plan, Kroc moves to seize control himself and cut the other founders out, The Social Network-style.

Watch the trailer below, via USA Today. The Founder hits theaters Aug. 5.