Video Content: Butler and Monaghan: SIDEWALKS host Maaika Westen interviews actors Gerard Butler (“300”) and Michelle Monaghan (“Source Code”) about their starring roles in “Machine Gun Preacher.” The stars also talk about their respective decisions in entering acting and give career advice for aspiring actors.
Machine Gun Preacher Rating: R Runtime: 123 minutes
Directed by: Marc Forster Written by: Jason Keller
Cast: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Shannon, Madeline Carroll, and Kathy Baker
Produced by: Robbie Brenner, Craig Chapman, Deborah Giarratana, Marc Forster, Gary Safady
Executive Producer: Gerard Butler, Michael Corso, Kyle Dean Jackson, Myles Nestel, Louise Rosner, Adi Shankar, Alan Siegel, Spencer Silna, Bradford Simpson
Studio Synopsis: “Machine Gun Preacher” is the inspirational true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who undergoes an astonishing transformation and finds an unexpected calling as the savior of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children. Gerard Butler (300) delivers a searing performance as Childers, the impassioned founder of the Angels of East Africa rescue organization in Golden Globe-nominated director Marc Forster’s (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland) moving story of violence and redemption.
When ex-biker-gang member Sam Childers (Butler) makes the life-changing decision to go to East Africa to help repair homes destroyed by civil war, he is outraged by the unspeakable horrors faced by the region’s vulnerable populace, especially the children. Ignoring the warnings of more experienced aide-workers, Sam breaks ground for an orphanage where it’s most needed—in the middle of territory controlled by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a renegade militia that forces youngsters to become soldiers before they even reach their teens.
But for Sam, it is not enough to shelter the LRA’s intended victims. Determined to save as many as possible, he leads armed missions deep into enemy territory to retrieve kidnapped children, restoring peace to their lives—and eventually his own. The explosive, real-life tale of a man who has rescued over a thousand orphans from starvation, disease and enslavement, Machine Gun Preacher also stars Michelle Monaghan (Due Date), Kathy Baker (Cold Mountain), Madeline Carroll (Mr. Popper’s Penguins), Academy Award® nominated Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) and Souleyman Sy Savane (“Damages”).
