Exclusive trailer: Michael Keaton is Ray Kroc in 'The Founder'

Michael Keaton is serving up the story of McDonald's in The Founder.

USA TODAY exclusively reveals the trailer for the anticipated John Lee Hancock-directed drama (in theaters Aug. 5), based on the true story of the fast-food empire and founder Ray Kroc (Keaton).

The Weinstein Company trailer poses the key Kroc question of how a "52-year-old, over-the-hill milkshake machine salesman" could build a global corporate behemoth like McDonald's with billions served.

Persistence certainly helped, as did some hard-headed business dealings with Mac (John Carroll Lynch) and Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman), who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California.

Kroc was impressed by the brothers' "revolutionary" system of making the food quickly. He saw franchise potential, inspiration for the golden arches and dollar signs.

As Keaton's Kroc says: "McDonald's can be the new American church, and it ain't just open on Sundays."