Danny Boyle And Stephen Daltry Chosen As Creative Directors For London Olympics

A week ago we heard that Danny Boyle was the top choice to direct the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. It was rumor at the time, but has now been confirmed. And along with Boyle, the  committee in charge has tapped film director Stephen Daldry to be the creative producer for the Games.

Deadline says that Boyle will be the "artistic director" for the main opening ceremony, while Daltry "will be in overall creative charge of the Olympics and Paralympics." He'll be part of a four-person team that will have creative oversight for the opening and closing ceremonies of both games.Reuters paraphrases Boyle saying that his opening may not be on the same scale as the Beijing ceremony (on which Zhang Yimou spent over $100m) but that it will be a "genuine and personal welcome" to athletes and audiences. The overall budget for the creative aspect of the Games will be 40 million pounds — just over half what Yimou spent on his opening ceremony.

Boyle says,

You have got to acknowledge that it is not going to be like Beijing in terms of this overwhelming, intimidating scale...It will be more modest than that. But our job is to make sure that within those means it is spectacular and delivers a thrilling welcoming to the opening of the Games.

He also praised the intimate scale of the main stadium and said he was taking inspiration from "sporting excellence and the city which had given him so many opportunities," as Reuters says.

Boyle will start to work on the Games full-time early next year, after he finishes 127 Hours and the stage production of Frankenstein.