Gerard Butler wants to settle down within five years

Actor Gerard Butler has set himself a five-year deadline to settle down and start a family, insisting "it's about time" he became a father.

The London Has Fallen star, who will turn 48 next month (Nov17), recently split from his on/off girlfriend Morgan Brown, but he is hopeful he will find love again so he can finally make his parenthood dreams a reality.

"In five years I want to be in a relationship," he tells People magazine. "I'd love to have one or two kids - it's about time."

Gerard has been jumping from project to project in recent months, and with five films currently in the works, he is eager to finally take some time out of his busy schedule to focus on fixing his personal life.

"It's been hard to get much done," he says about dating while he's working. "I have no personal life."

The Scot wants his priorities to change in the near future so his schedule will be "more run by my personal life than my career", and he can envision himself moving away from California so he can spend more time in the great outdoors.

"My stomach aches when I think about nature and adventure," Gerard shares. "I have a place out in Malibu right now but (in five years), I want to have a place in North Carolina or somewhere that I spend more time in nature."

For the time being, Gerard likes to spend his days off in California "getting on a motorbike, putting a tent on the back and going to Sequoia National Park to camp and hike" - although he is unlikely to be getting on the back of a bike anytime soon, after sustaining a number of injuries in a road accident last week (ends13Oct17).

Gerard was briefly hospitalised after the "pretty painful" crash in Los Angeles, which occurred after another driver performed an illegal U-turn in their car, but the actor was back on his feet for the premiere of his new movie, Geostorm, on Monday (16Oct17), when he admitted the scary collision had made him "appreciate how precious life is".

He also detailed some of his injuries, revealing he has five fractures in his right foot and a torn meniscus affecting his knee.