It seems Danny Boyle has occasional underestimation in his skills as a movie director with a brilliant and astute eye regarding social issues. When "Slumdog Millionaire" released in 2008 and won the Oscar best picture, it took everybody by surprise, even if controversies existed over the depiction of the economically poor in the film. If that was a problem for a minority in "Slumdog Millionaire", the depiction of social and economic issues in the United Kingdom's past was hard to deny in Boyle's opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics.
You don't have to be British to say Boyle's vision for the London opening ceremony was the most colorfully brilliant depiction of the British aura you'll likely ever see. And because it played with a narrative of a movie, it seems incomprehensible that Boyle hasn't considered the interconnected stories as an adapted feature. After all, we're overdue for a compelling tale of how the U.K. evolved themselves (and the rest of the world) through industry, health care, music, technology, and, yes, comedy.
Not often have we seen a movie depicting the earliest days of the U.K., other than fictional King Arthur or 13th century Scots in "Braveheart" that England would like to forget. In the land where London developed, the most notable film examples of that history usually only go as far back as the Elizabethan era, even if those focus on the royal side over the villager perspective. And despite some British films made about engineer extraordinaire Isambard Kingdom Brunel, you can't say any had a depiction quite like the one Kenneth Branagh did at the London opening ceremony.
A movie depiction by Boyle on U.K.'s industrial revolution would be an interesting turn, with some necessary tweaks to avoid the Olympic rings being the center of that revolution. Connecting it all to what happens in the 20th century is an exercise only intended for the most ambitious filmmakers as Boyle is. But he already has the plot line written out where the uprising of industry ultimately and ironically gives way to a health care system that's mostly fair for all.
If the NHS segment of the opening ceremony had to rely on puppetry effects, imagine the literary villain nightmare segment in a film. While perhaps instigating a rights battle nightmare to use all those famous literary characters, there could be an easy tie there to the next segment: June and Frankie. What if both of them were part of those sick kids who later have the fortune to time travel through U.K.'s rock music history?
In fact, June and Frankie could be the center of it all if you go by the Boyle "Slumdog Millionaire" casting style. How Sir Tim Berners-Lee would fit in would have to be overly creative, even if he deserves a biopic of his own with the right screenplay. This doesn't necessarily discount having another Rowan Atkinson cameo, this time perhaps playing his famous Black Adder character as a nod to both real history and British TV comedy history.
What then of the James Bond film with the brief Queen Elizabeth performance? Yes, the queen has to make another cameo in this imagined film, though this time playing one of the commoners during the rise of industry. That's the only way she can prove she's ready for a new acting career.
