Universal picks up rights to Green Day musical American Idiot

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

After dropping an adaptation of the Broadway musical “In the Heights,” Universal is getting back into the movie musical game picking up the rights to Green Day’s AMERICAN IDIOT. Tom Hanks is producing the film with Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black (MILK) writing the script.

This is normally the part of the article where I’d share some background on the material in question, but I literally have no idea about this AMERICAN IDIOT phenomenon. I checked out of Green Day somewhere around “Kerplunk,” something I say not to sound hipster cool (“I liked them back before they were famous…”) just to highlight that I’m almost totally ignorant of their work. I had no idea this “American Idiot” CD was a musical/concept album until I started seeing ads for the Broadway show.

But apparently it is was a Broadway show and successful enough for Universal to think it’d be successful on the big-screen. This seems plausible because my mom is a big fan of Green Day and, as we all know, moms like to pay money to see musicals. As for what that says about a once-respected punk bad, I’ll let you decide.

I’m still not entirely sure what AMERICAN IDIOT is about but I’m guessing being young and cranky and full of teen angst. Frankly it seemed that the original appeal of Green Day was their simple hooks and lyrics uncomplicated by any real kind of thought (most of their early songs were about sitting around, bored). But hey, if it tickles your fancy, go with it. I got caught singing Peter Cetera’s “You’re My Inspiration” at the supermarket last night so what do I know?