Green Day's comedy Nimrods heads to cinemas with its own soundtrack

Green Day's coming-of-age comedy Nimrods is heading to cinemas, arriving in the UK on August 11 and the US on August 14. Written and directed by Lee Kirk, it stars Mason Thomas, Kylr Coffman and Ryan Foust as the fictional Kansas City punk trio Analog Dogs, with Green Day appearing as themselves and serving as producers.

The story follows Tommy after his older brother convinces him they have been invited to open for Green Day on New Year's Eve, sending the friends racing to Los Angeles to make the show; it draws on the band's real-life experiences touring in a van before their mainstream breakthrough. The film was previously titled New Years Rev before being renamed Nimrods this April, a reference to Green Day's 1997 album Nimrod.

The score is composed by Alec Puro, and the soundtrack leans heavily on Green Day's back catalogue, including Welcome To Paradise, Longview, Basket Case, Wake Me Up When September Ends and a live cut of American Idiot, alongside a new song, I'm Never Gonna R.I.P., and previously unreleased live tracks from the Palladium in Los Angeles. Other acts on the soundtrack include the fictional Analog Dogs, Ramones, Mckenna Grace, The Paradox and Ultra Q.

Green Day promoted the film with a surprise Comic-Con appearance and a Basket Case performance on top of an ice cream van. The soundtrack album itself came out July 31, and the film adds to Green Day's move into film with Nimrods, opening August 14, which covered the release date separately.

The supporting cast rounds out with Mckenna Grace, Jenna Fischer, Fred Armisen, Bobby Lee and Sean Gunn alongside the film's three young leads, with Green Day appearing as themselves throughout the film rather than only across its soundtrack.