Green Day Musical Could Hit Silver Screen

Green Day

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has big plans for the band's upcoming American Idiot musical.

The production, based on the Bay Area punks' 2004 concept album of the same name, will premiere at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California in September. But Armstrong hopes that the musical will eventually hit the silver screen, too -- just like a certain campy cult classic.

"I thought American Idiot had a lot in common with something like Rocky Horror Picture Show," Armstrong told the Associated Press. "It would be great to see a film made out of it someday, too."

The comparison is a telling one, in terms of Armstrong's aspirations -- Rocky Horror Picture Show, a film adaptation of the British musical stage production Rocky Horror Show, is still in limited release almost 34 years after its premiere, making it the longest-running film in history.

In subject matter, however, it's safe to say that American Idiot will be wildly different. While Rocky Horror Picture Show's bizarre plot involves transsexual UFOs and a mad scientist named Dr. Frank N. Furter, the stage version of American Idiot -- co-written by Armstrong and Tony Award-winning Spring Awakening director Michael Mayer -- will skew to the more serious side. The musical will follow a group of working-class characters as they travel "from the suburbs to the city to the Middle East," seeking "redemption in a world filled with frustration," according to the Berkeley Rep's web site.