Billie Joe Armstrong Cast As American Idiot Lead

We reported a while back that the hit broadway play American Idiot would be making its way into theatres as a film. Based off the mega successful Green Day album, rumors said that the brand’s frontman Billie Joe Armstrong would be playing the lead, which seemed entirely possible. After all, it would make perfect sense.

Well, it seems like the rumors were true. THR is telling us that the singer will indeed star in the film, reprising his Broadway role as St. Jimmy. Director Michael Mayer will be behind the camera and Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black will pen the script which is about “the coming of age of three small-town guys — one joins the armed forces, another moves to the city and gets mired in a drug habit, the third stays home and gets his girlfriend pregnant.

I haven’t seen the play but I am a fan of the album and of Green Day in general. Casting Billie Joe Armstrong was a smart and sensible move and the way this one is shaping up, it looks like we’re going to have a pretty worthy musical. Casting the band’s frontman should be enough to draw in the box office numbers and with a script from Dustin Lance Black, I think I’m definitely going to enjoy this one.