First Official Photo Of Gerard Butler As MACHINE GUN PREACHER

Here is the first official look at Gerard Butler in a biopic, MACHINE GUN PREACHER, via USA Today. It’s a role that, if played right, I think may earn Butler an Oscar nod. You can read the official plot synopsis and also excerpt of Butler’s thoughts on the real Sam Childers whom he portrays in this film, after this jump..

“Those other roles were based on historic characters who became the stuff of legend, but Sam is a guy of our times,” “There is more complexity in a modern-day character who’s a drug addict and a biker turned businessman, missionary and soldier. You don’t get roles like this very often.”
“When I walked into Sam’s house, he had been so built up by everyone, I didn’t know what to expect,” Butler says. “I met this absolutely dominant alpha male who on one hand loves the attention but on the other hand loves the company of his family and friends. This is his story and this is his moment to tell it to the world. I had to bow down to that. But there is a darkness in him as well. He could not go through all the things that are in the movie by being Mr. Nice Guy.”

Directed and produced by DGA and Golden Globe®-nominee Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) and written by Jason Keller (Relativity’s Untitled Snow White Project), the film stars Gerard Butler (300) in a tour de force performance and will release in Los Angeles and New York on September 23, 2011. The film will expand markets in the weeks to follow. Lionsgate will continue to oversee international distribution on the film, working in partnership with Relativity…

The film also showcases powerful performances by an ensemble cast, including Michelle Monaghan (Due Date), Kathy Baker (Cold Mountain), Oscar®-nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), Madeline Carroll (The Spy Next Door) and breakout actor Souleymane Sy Savane (Goodbye Solo).

Machine Gun Preacher is based on the true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who finds faith leading him on a path to East Africa. Shocked by the mayhem in Sudan, Childers becomes a crusader for hundreds of refugee children. Inspired to create a safe haven for the multitudes fleeing enslavement by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army, he restores peace to their lives and eventually his own.