{"id":851753,"date":"2026-08-11T19:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851753\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T19:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:22:11","slug":"green-days-new-comedy-movie-nimrods-draws-inspiration-from-the-bands-early-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851753\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Day\u2019s new comedy movie Nimrods draws inspiration from the band\u2019s early years"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Global punk rock sensation Green Day<\/a> is branching out into filmmaking with “Nimrods,” a coming-of-age comedy<\/a> drawing partial inspiration from their early years performing as musicians.<\/p>\n

Written and directed by Lee Kirk, the narrative follows three adolescents pursuing their shared musical dreams, a journey the band notes reflects key elements of its own rise.<\/p>\n

“The first dream we ever had was to play a gig and we finally got a chance to play a gig,” lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Armstrong explained that Green Day’s ambitions expanded alongside their achievements, evolving from landing small gigs to filling stadiums and eventually producing a movie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ArmstrongArmstrong explained that Green Day’s ambitions expanded alongside their achievements, evolving from landing small gigs to filling stadiums and eventually producing a movie (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Within the movie, Tommy, played by Mason Thames, aspires to open for Green Day after giving the group a demo tape during a meet-and-greet.<\/p>\n

After his brother Wayne convinces him Green Day invited his band to open a New Year’s Eve concert, Tommy and bandmates Fred, played by Kyle Coffman, and Chad, portrayed by Ryan Foust, embark on a cross-country trip from Kansas to Los Angeles determined to play.<\/p>\n

Band members said this cross-country plot line draws directly on experiences from Green Day’s early tours.<\/p>\n

“You never know when you’re living those moments in your life and you’re doing cool stuff, you don’t realize in that moment that this is going to be a bitching scene in a movie some day,” drummer Tre Cool said.<\/p>\n

Bassist Mike Dirnt said the film aims to capture the band’s youthful mindset and rock-and-roll attitude.<\/p>\n

“We had nothing to lose and we wanted to go out and take over the world. If that meant playing for six people, that’s great, if it lands at 68,000 later on, that’s still great. But I just think the spirit is there, the spirit of rock and roll really,” he said.<\/p>\n

Armstrong noted that the comedy drew creative influence from movies like “Rushmore” and the work of director John Hughes.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always had a part teenage brain, part teenage heart or whatever. So, those are some of my favorite movies, so we definitely used that as an influence,” the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” singer said.<\/p>\n

Although Green Day plays a central role in the narrative, the group largely stays off screen, with its music featured prominently across the soundtrack instead.<\/p>\n

“You don’t have to be a Green Day fan to love this movie. You can just love this movie and you’ll probably end up liking Green Day after, I hope,” Cool said.<\/p>\n

“Nimrods,” produced by Live Nation Studios, arrives in U.S. theaters on August 14.<\/p>\n

Green Day achieved mainstream success with its 1994 breakthrough release “Dookie” and is famous for classic hits like “Basket Case,” “Good Riddance” and “American Idiot.” The group has won four Grammy Awards and inspired a Broadway musical based on “American Idiot.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":["post-851753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}