American Idiot by Green Day has already reached cult status as an album and as a Broadway musical of the same name and now it looks like it could be hitting the big screen too as a new deal from Universal has been revealed.

According to reports Universal is currently holding negotiations for the screen rights to American Idiot and has hired the director of the stage production, Michael Mayer, to shoot the film version.

Other big names said to be involved in the project include Oscar winning Dustin Lance Black, the writer of Milk while Tom Hanks is said to be onboard as a producer along with the three members of Green Day.

The album tackled the concept of love taking on rage with the album following the paths of three characters, Jesus of Suburbia, an aimless character, a punk rock freedom fighter named St Jimmy and the third character Whatsername.

The American Idiot album was originally released by 2004 and sparked somewhat of a comeback for the punk rock trio and quickly became one of the best selling and most popular albums from the band picking up numerous awards upon its release.

It is reported that Universal had been on the look out for a new musical following the success of Mamma Mia, based on the greatest hits of ABBA.