Lionsgate has picked up the domestic rights to Marc Forster’s next picture, “Machine Gun Preacher,” a project worth repeating if only because our eyes have glazed over every time it’s come up (meaning, we need to remind ourselves too).
The films stars Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Shannon, Madeline Carroll, Kathy Baker and Souleymane Sy Savane (“Goodbye Solo”) and centers on Sam Childers (Butler), a former drug-dealing biker tough guy who found God and became a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese children who’ve been forced to become soldiers.
Having already directed everything from “Monster’s Ball,” and “The Kite Runner” to “Stranger Than Fiction” and “Quantum of Solace,” Forster is a chameleon if nothing else.
While it sounds action-y, the picture has a dramatic bent and will probably return Forster to films that are the exact opposite of the Bond film he took on (one hopes anyhow). The picture was written by Jason Keller who adapted Childers’ memoir “Another Man’s War: The True Story of One Man’s Battle to Save Children in the Sudan.” He also wrote the upcoming Antoine Fuqua-lead prison escape drama “The Tomb,” which has Bruce Willis attached. The film begins shooting July 5 in Detroit and South Africa and Lionsgate is eyeing a fall 2011 release date which again suggests that this will be a more serious picture (we hesitate to say Oscar-bait). There’s been a lot of talk that the film will show Butler’s acting chops, though it remains to be seen if he has anything special under the hood.
Forster was once eyeing the Kurt Cobain biopic produced by Courtney Love, but is now no longer attached. [Variety]