Looking to give his acting chops a workout instead of his abs, Gerard Butler has signed on to the based-on-real-life drama Machine Gun Preacher, which Marc Forster plans to direct.
While the title makes it sound like a bullet-flinging action-fest torn from the pages of a comic book, the film will chronicle the work of Sam Childers, a former drug-taking biker type who found religion and dedicated his life to helping kidnapped and abused children in Africa, including youngsters who had been forced into a military life.
His tale is told in his book, Another Man's War: The True Story Of One Man's Battle To Save Children In The Sudan, and the script has been adapted by writer Jason Keller, who worked with Forster to get it into shape.
The story originally cropped up on a small Pennsylvania news site (tracked down by the Oh No They Didn't blog) when Butler went to visit Childers to talk about his life and work, but now Deadline Hollywood reports it's a done deal for Butler to star.
Now, however, they need to find a studio to fund making the actual movie...