Michael Mayer to Direct AMERICAN IDIOT Film, Billie Joe Armstrong to Star

Based on Green Day's groundbreaking rock opera American Idiot, Billie Joe Armstrong and the band collaborated with one of the theatre's most acclaimed creative teams, led by the Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer, to bring this explosive, iconic album to the stage.

The team will once again bring IDIOT to audiences - this time in movie theaters, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Under the direction of Michael Mayer, and featuring Billie Joe Armstrong reprising his Broadway role as St. Jimmy, the film aims for a 2013 premiere under Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions.

Playtone also produced the film of MAMMA MIA! and has the rights to SPRING AWAKENING. While film adaptations of musicals aren't unheard of, Playtone aims to bring many more to the silver screen: "We're always looking for musicals," the Production Company's partner Gary Goetzman tells THR. "It'd be a genre that's as respected as any produced by the studios. Maybe there will be three musicals a year, maybe five...We need all these genres to be respected and we need the studios not to be afraid of them."

Following 421 performances on Broadway and 27 previews, the final performance of AMERICAN IDIOT played on April 24. The first national tour launches this fall. Read the full Hollywood Reporter article here.