Gerard Butler has signed on to lead Antoine Fuqua's submarine thriller Hunter Killer.  Per Variety, "the story follows an untested submarine captain who must work with a Navy SEAL team to rescue Russia's president, who's taken prisoner during a military coup. The two sides team to stop a rogue Russian general from igniting World War III."  Russia really needs to sort out their whole rogue military officer problem.  Butler would play the submarine captain, and Sam Worthington is circling the role of Bill Beaman, leader of the Navy SEAL team.  I don't have much faith Fuqua, but Butler really impressed me with his performance in Machine Gun Preacher and I'm always excited to see a new submarine movie.

Butler has been keeping busy as of late.  He recently wrapped on the soccer comedy Playing the Field, he's about to start shooting on Curtis Hanson's surfing drama Of Men & Mavericks, and he'll next be seen in Ralph Fiennes modern-day adaptation of Coriolanus and the Peter Farrelly and Charles B. Wessler comedy omnibus.  Relativity is aiming for a winter start date for Hunter Killer and plans to release the film on December 21, 2012.