Tuesday, June 14, 2011 8:52am ET by  
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Green Day's Billie Joe to reprise 'American Idiot' role in film adaptation

The stage version of 'American Idiot' may have ended, but Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong has been signed up to reprise his role as St. Jimmy in a film adaptation.

The production company, Playtone, who were responsible for the global smash hit 'Mamma Mia', will be behind this new venture and the ___ Gary Goetzman explained the potential they saw in the live show:

"Mamma Mia! proved that if the musical is right, obviously it can go into the stratosphere, as far as box office gross. We’re always looking for musicals."

Talking about the company's expectations of the movie version, he added:

"If we can do that, 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. I think that’s important otherwise we’d just have this tentpole mentality where if it’s not based on a comic book or cost $200 million, you're stacked in like pillars. We need all these genres to be respected and we need the studios not to be afraid of them."

They are aiming to release the film into cinemas at some point in 2013 although no concrete plans have been confirmed at this point in time. 

Watch the broadway cast, including Billie Joe, perform '21 Guns' here: