Relativity Media has acquired North American rights from Lionsgate to market and distribute the biopic Machine Gun Preacher, starring Gerard Butler. Lionsgate will maintain international distribution. The film is written by Jason Keller and directed by Marc Forster and will have limited release in Los Angeles and New York on September 23, 2011. The film will have a wider release afterward.
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.
Other notable actors in the cast are Michelle Monaghan, Kathy Baker, Michael Shannon, Madeline Carroll and Souleymane Sy Savane.