Don Handfield And Jeremy Renner

The actors-turned-producers of The Founder (who met at Gold’s Gym) on more Avengers and Bourne and why they partnered with Harvey Weinstein when making a movie about McDonald’s 

- Stephen Galloway

Jeremy Renner and Don Handfield were struggling actors, newly arrived in Los Angeles and living off ramen, when they met at Gold’s Gym in Hollywood about 20 years ago. Handfield went on to pursue a career as a writer-director producer (including a stint at E!), while Renner stuck to acting and eventually became Oscar nominated for The Hurt Locker and The Town as well as starring in The Bourne Legacy and the current hit Arrival.

Now they’re back together at The Combine, a five-employee production company that has an overhead deal with PalmStar Media, investor Kevin Frakes’ film-finance vehicle. Even though Renner appears as Hawkeye in the Avengers movies, he and his partner’s goal is not to make expensive studio tent poles but rather low- to mid-budget specialty films, along with telefilms and series. Renner, 45, cites The Shawshank Redemption, Braveheart and A Clockwork Orange among his favorite films, while Handfield, also 45, mentions television shows including Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley.

The duo produced 2014’s Kill the Messenger and 2015’s The Throwaways, but their highest-profile bet yet is The Founder, about the real-life Ray Kroc and how he wrested control of McDonald’s from the brothers who founded the fast food enterprise. That movie, which stars Michael Keaton as Kroc and had a budget of $15 million to $20 million, is getting a one-week awards-qualifying run starting Dec. 9, followed by a wider release Jan. 20 from The Weinstein Co.