The Weinstein Company Moves Up The Founder and Dates Lion

The Weinstein Company has moved The Founder from November to August and slotted Lion in its place

With Michael Keaton having headlined two Best Pictures in a row, there’s more anticipation than ever for his upcoming Ray Kroc biopic, The Founder. That’s likely the impetus for The Weinstein Company today announcing that The Founder will now arrive in theaters more than three months earlier than originally planned. Previously set to hit the big screen in a limited release Thanksgiving weekend, The Founder will now open wide on August 5. Taking the November 25 release date will be Lion, director Garth Davis’ adaptation of Saroo Brierley’s The Long Way Home.

Also starring Nick Offerman, Linda Cardellini, Laura Dern, BJ Novak and John Carroll Lynch, The Founder hails from screenwriter Robert Siegel (Big Fan) and tells the true story of how Ray Kroc (Keaton), 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 the billion dollar empire that is McDonalds.

Lion, meanwhile, stars Dev Patel, Rooney Mara and Nicole Kidman. Adapted from Brierley’s nonfiction tome, Lion follows five-year-old Indian boy who, after a wrong train takes him thousands of miles away from home and family, survives many challenges before being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, armed with only the scantest of clues, he learns of a new technology called Google Earth, and sets out to find his lost family.

The August 5 date will see The Founder open opposite the Kevin-Spacey-trapped-in-the-body-of-a-cat comedy Nine Lives as well as David Ayer’s much anticipated DC Comics super villain ensemble, Suicide Squad. Lion, meanwhile, will face competition from Bad Santa 2 and Walt Disney Animation‘s Moana. 

The post The Weinstein Company Moves Up The Founder and Dates Lion appeared first on ComingSoon.net.