SPARTI, Greece – Actor Gerard Butler, who played the role of King Leonidas of Sparta in the movie “300”, will return to Sparta for a series of events to celebrate the 2,500-year anniversary from the battle of Thermopylae.

Among others, Butler will run in the Olympic Torch relay on March 13, carrying the Olympic Flame from the Byzantine town of Mystras to Sparta for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The Hollywood actor was invited to participate in the events by Roi Danali Apostolopoulou, which was pronounced honorary ambassador of Sparti by the city’s mayor Petros Doukas. Apostolopoulou had the idea and took the initiative to invite Butler to be a torch-bearer, an invitation he accepted with pleasure.

Two movie producers, Gianni Nunnari (producer of “300”, “Immortals”, “300: Rise of an Empire”, “Alexander”, “Shutter Island”, “Se7en” and others) and Alan Siegel (“Olympus has Fallen”, “Hunter Killer”, “Law Abiding Citizen” and more) as well as Hollywood actor of Spartan descent Billy Zane (“Titanic”, “Back to the Future”) will accompany Butler to Sparti.