Green Day's 'American Idiot' Now a Movie, Produced by Tom Hanks

Long-lived rock band Green Day has already conquered two different media: the song and the stage. Pretty soon, you'll be able to add the movies to the list as well.

"American Idiot," the Broadway musical based on Green Day's concept album of the same name, has been optioned as a movie and bought by Universal.

The new project will be produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman who, in a rather smart move, optioned the rights before "American Idiot" even started on Broadway.

It would seem that Hanks (or "Hanx" if you follow him on Twitter) has a thing for music movies: he produced the Abba-fest "Mamma Mia!" and wrote and directed "That Thing You Do!" He seems to have a thing for exclamation marks, too...I wonder if he'll add one here: "American Idiot!"

A writer for the screenplay has not yet been decided on, but "Milk" scribe Dustin Lance Black is in talks to take the responsibility.

"Mamma Mia!" was a pretty big hit, and my guess is that "American Idiot" will do even better. After all, you're much more likely to pull in males aged 14-34 with a Green Day musical than with an ABBA one.