Will Green Day ever make the ‘American Idiot’ movie or a full biopic? Tré Cool responds

Green Day‘s Tré Cool has addressed whether the long-discussed ‘American Idiot’ movie is still in the works, and whether the band are due for a full biopic.

The drummer has spoken to NME following the release of Nimrods, the new fictional coming-of-age comedy inspired by Green Day’s early touring years, and he was asked whether the plans for a big screen adaptation of their 2004 rock opera could still be revived.

“I think it’s probably more talk now that Nimrods is such a hit,” he said. “It’s great. We’ve shown that we can make records – and apparently we can make movies too. So, let’s do it. We make musicals. We can make ‘Dookie’… every morning!”

Asked whether he thinks the 2004 album is particularly suited to the big screen, Cool continued: “Yeah, just got to do the right [thing]. Come on, we just put out Nimrods! You’re trying to make us make another movie! That’s like as soon as you put a new record out, two weeks later… ‘Oh you guys gonna go back in the studio?’”

“Well, look, I’ll tell you this: we’re very proud of ‘American Idiot’, and it’s an incredibly important record to us – and we’re not not talking about it!”

The drummer also confirmed that conventional Green Day biopics have been proposed to them at times in their career, but he suggested they are not ready to look back just yet.

“It happens every so often,” he said. “Every couple of eras, someone’s like: ‘We should make a film about your life’. Like, we ain’t done yet. We don’t want to sit and look back and spin our wheels, spending our energy talking about what we’ve done when we’re still doing stuff.”

There has been talk of an ‘American Idiot’ movie for a long time. Reports in 2011 suggested that Tom Hanks was interested in producing it, while playwright Rolin Jones said in 2013 that he was “finishing up” the script.

In 2016, Billie Joe Armstrong told NME that the project had been given the green light by HBO, and said he was expected to reprise his role as St. Jimmy from the Tony-winning Broadway and West End musical spinoff. He later teased the film would be “surreal” and “offensive”.

However, in 2020, Armstrong said that plans for the film had been “pretty much scrapped”.

He did sound more optimistic last year, though, saying: “The musical did so well and they’ve done it in Australia, Italy, Germany, England.. Eventually it’s going to happen, I would think.”

‘American Idiot’ revitalised Green Day’s career in 2004, serving as a voice of frustration during the George W. Bush administration and resonating with a new generation. A 20th anniversary reissue of the album arrived in 2024, featuring a new documentary, 15 unreleased demos, a New York City live show and B-sides and bonus tracks.

Nimrods, meanwhile, was written and directed by Lee Kirk and follows three teenagers who mistakenly believe their band have secured a Green Day support slot at a New Year’s Eve concert. The band appear as themselves and also serve as producers, and it saw an exclusive UK cinema release on August 11.

Its soundtrack includes the new song ‘I’m Never Gonna R.I.P.’, and the band played a surprise set at the Los Angeles premiere afterparty last week.

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