Oscar-winner Danny Boyle is giving Prime Minister David Cameron a sneak preview of the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony this week.
Boyle, the opening ceremony artistic director, will be using a model of the Olympics Stadium, music and a 40-minute computer-generated film at the secret briefing. The spectacle will include “a lot of music” and will present “all parts of the United Kingdom”, he let slip despite strict orders from London 2012 executives to stay tight-lipped. He also said: “There will be some serious bits in the show but there will also be some fun bits as well.”
Of the meeting with Mr Cameron, Boyle said: “We are going to show him the show this week and then keep moving forward for a year’s time. “We have a 40-minute CG presentation, which is like a little film.
“A bit of commentary from me and a lot of music – I can reveal that there will be a lot of music in it – and you can create an impression of what the show will feel like for 40 minutes of something that will eventually be for three hours, including the marching arrival of the athletes.”
The Oscar-winning director of Slumdog Millionaire, who lives just a stone’s throw from the Olympic Stadium in east London, still cannot believe his luck in being named as artistic director. “It is quite an extraordinary opportunity in my life which compares with other things I have done in my life in one form or another,” he said.
Ideas for the ceremony have been fleshed out but now need to be made a reality. Boyle has worked “very hard” to get to grips with the mammoth protocol involved with the ceremony, according to London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton.
He said: “You can tell it is really important to him. “He buys into the Games big time and he buys into how important it is for London.”