Last March, Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman optioned the screen rights to American Idiot, the Broadway rock opera based on the music of Green Day.  Playtone has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures -- now the studio is in negotiations to acquire the project.  Deadline reports Dustin Lance Black (Milk) is in talks to write the script.  Michael Mayer, the man behind the stage musical, will direct the movie as well.The musical tells "the story three lifelong friends, forced to choose between their dreams and the safety of suburbia."  Watch a clip from the show after the break.The cast performing "Holiday" on Late Show with David Letterman:Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong's voice is so idiosyncratic.  It's weird to hear classically trained singers sing these familiar tunes.  It's like Adultz Bop.Universal is surely inspired by the $600 million worldwide success of Mamma Mia to turn to Broadway for material.  The studio also has adaptations of Les Miserables and Wicked in the workds.Here's how the American Idiot stage show opens, including the song selections.

The musical opens on a group of angry youths unhappily living in suburbia (identified as Jingletown, USA) and saturated with TV. Fed up with the state of the union, the company explodes in frustration ("American Idiot"). The musical then focuses on three best friends: Johnny, Will, and Tunny. The three feel threatened by their mundane lives. Johnny (aka Jesus of Suburbia) goes to commiserate with Will ("Jesus of Suburbia"). Tunny shows up to join the party. When the three of them run out of beer, they head to the 7-Eleven, where Tunny exposes the do-nothing go-nowhere quicksand of their lives ("City of the Damned"). They get riled up, and Johnny challenges his friends to engage ("I Don't Care"). Will's girlfriend Heather appears. She is pregnant and doesn't know what to do ("Dearly Beloved"). Johnny borrows money from his mother and buys bus tickets to the city for himself and his friends. Heather reveals to Will that he is going to be a father, so he decides to stay home ("Tales of Another Broken Home"). Johnny and Tunny depart for the city with a group of other jaded youths ("Holiday"). [Wikipedia]

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