John Lee Hancock “disappointed” by Michael Keaton’s awards snubs

Michael Keaton’s performance deserved for more says his director…

It has been another crowded marketplace over the festive period and through the new year with a slew of blockbusters interspersed with the usual array of Oscar hopefuls who began their long run into the awards season. But with so much product in a short space of time, some were always going to get a short shrift: Ben Affleck’s Live by Night sadly didn’t explode the way people hoped, and this weekend saw Matthew McConaughey’s Gold go a similar way.

The Founder could be put into the same category, perhaps even more so given the reaction to Michael Keaton’s performance as Ray Kroc, the man who turned McDonald’s into the biggest restaurant business in the world. Reviews for the film were mixed to good but one thing critics agreed on was Keaton’s performance but sadly for him and the filmmakers, his performance got overlooked during awards season and director John Lee Hanock has been speaking of his disappointment.

Speaking to Newsweek, the filmmaker said:

“It’s very disappointing. [Keaton’s] so deserving… Nobody knew about us. We weren’t in the conversation. The conversation for awards season starts months and months before, and it has to be carefully calculated, and it wasn’t.”

“Different people that were on the [Screen Actors Guild] nominating committee saw the movie and told me: ‘This is my favorite movie of the year. I wish I would’ve known, I would’ve voted for Michael.’ I don’t know how to answer that except nobody knew about us.”

The film has been originally scheduled for an August 2016 release but when The Weinstein Company, who distributed the film, saw the final product, they saw another potential awards contender particularly with Keaton. Sadly, the film didn’t work out that way and on its US release on January 20th it bowed to around $3.4million.

The Founder is out in UK cinemas on February 17th.