Given the rumors that occasionally dog Gerard Butler, I love when the meaty film related ones actually prove true. According to Deadline Hollywood Daily, Butler will be starring in Machine Gun Preacher, a big screen version of the life and work of Reverend Sam Childers. He has attracted director Marc Forster who is happily taking the helming job.
Childers’ life story is detailed in his book, Another Man’s War. A biker attracted to drugs and violence, he experienced a religious awakening at an Assembly of God church, and actually received a prophecy that he would work in Africa. Whether it was destiny or not, Childers made his first trip to Sudan, and took up what has become his life’s work — protecting children from Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. In addition to forming an orphange, he has put together a militia to protect Sudan’s children — hence the Machine Gun Preacher nickname. He even has an official website where you can learn more about his work in Sundan.
Forster developed the screenplay with screenwriter Jason Keller, and Butler will play Childers. He was photographed with the real Sam Childers just recently which gave rise to the speculation he was interested in playing him onscreen. Preproduction is set to start later this year, and if it comes together as well as it looks on paper, it’ll make up for the fluffy rom-coms.