Inaugural Entertainment dropped the full trailer for “Nimrods” on Wednesday, giving the clearest look yet at the Green Day-inspired road trip comedy hitting theaters August 14. Mckenna Grace stars alongside Mason Thames in the film, written and directed by Lee Kirk, and produced by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool through Live Nation Studios.
The trailer opens on a basement band practice, three friends banging through a track about being “bored at school and bored at home,” before the premise kicks into gear. Tommy, played by Thames, gets a phone call he believes is an invitation for his band to open for Green Day on New Year’s Eve. It’s actually a prank pulled by his older brother, Wayne. Tommy doesn’t care. He steals the car and drives his crew from Kansas City to Los Angeles anyway, giving the movie its rowdy cross-country spine. Grace plays his love interest, and the two-minute preview puts her squarely in the middle of the chaos.
The casting here carries some real weight. Thames, who broke out in “The Black Phone,” gets to run the full emotional range of a kid who knows the gig is probably too good to be true but can’t stop himself from chasing it. Grace is no stranger to projects that blend comedy and heart. Her resume includes “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” and her Emmy-nominated turn in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and she’s reportedly a real-life couple with Thames, which gives their on-screen dynamic an added layer. The Collider Summer Preview Event actually ran an exclusive first-look image of the two of them in a convenience store mid-road trip, teasing the quieter character beats between the bigger comedic set pieces.
The supporting cast leans heavily on comedy veterans. “The Office” co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey appear together again, which will register for a lot of viewers on its own. SNL alum Fred Armisen is in the mix, along with comedian Bobby Lee, Sean Gunn, Keen Ruffalo, and Ignacio Diaz-Silverio. Kirk directed Fischer’s husband, a detail that gives the production something of a rep company feel.
The film itself has been around for a while, though. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of last year under its original title “New Years Rev,” and Inaugural Entertainment acquired it in April and gave it the new name, a nod to Green Day’s 1997 album “Nimrod.” Armstrong, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter when the project screened at TIFF, laid out what drew him to the concept.
“I’ve always wanted to do a Green Day film,” Armstrong said. “God, ever since the beginning, just all my heroes have always done films, whether it was Rock ‘n’ Roll High School by the Ramones or the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, the Who’s Quadrophenia. I just wanted to do the same thing.”
The trailer is set to “Basket Case,” Armstrong told THR that the story captures the band’s pre-“Dookie” DIY years when shows got shut down by police and the whole operation ran on momentum and bad decisions. Green Day themselves appear in the film and are among the producers. International sales are being handled by Palisades Park Pictures, which picked up global rights ahead of the Cannes market in May.
“Nimrods” opens in theaters August 14.
