Slumdog film-maker Danny Boyle to direct 2012 Olympic show

Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle was named as artistic director of the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Fellow British film-maker Stephen Daldry will also play a key role as one of four executive producers of lavish opening and closing shows of the Games in two years' time.

"I'm honoured to have been invited... It's a completely unique opportunity to contribute to what I'm sure are going to be a fantastic Games," said Boyle, whose 2008 movie Slumdog Millionaire, set in Mumbai, won eight Oscars.

"I'm really excited to be involved," he said.

The film-maker - originally from Manchester in northern England and now a major Hollywood player - faces the task of coming up with a show to follow Beijing's eye-poppingly spectacular opening ceremony in 2008.

Mr Boyle told the BBC his aim was "to provide a thrilling, enthralling, captivating evening," adding: "Hopefully it'll take its place in the list of openings, but it'll be a new beginning as well."

Mr Daldry - director of Billy Elliot and The Reader - will also help produce the four shows which bookend the main Games and the Paralympics centred on the British capital.

"Myself and my co-executive producers will ensure there is creative continuity across all four ceremonies, that the public have real engagement and that we continue to attract... the best talent in the world," said Mr Daldry.

"I'm delighted to be part of the team," he said.

The other three executive co-producers are: Mark Fisher, designer of the Beijing 2008 Games; Grammy and Bafta award nominated TV director Hamish Hamilton; and Catherine Ugwu, producer for the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.

"This is a brilliant team bringing together some of the most imaginative people in the world," said London mayor Boris Johnson.

"The work they have produced over the years has been quite extraordinary, with an impact not just in the UK, but also on the international stage."

Planning for the ceremonies will be based at the 3 Mills Studios, in the shadow of the main Olympic site in east London.

Some 450 full-time staff and hundreds of contractors will work on producing the ceremonies after moving in to the film studios in October this year, said the London Organising Committee for the Games (LOCOG).

LOCOG chair and Olympic champion Sebastian Coe said organisers were drawing on "world-class British talent" to stage the Games.

"Each one of these individuals would hold their own on the worldwide stage... We are delighted with the team we have brought together to deliver our ceremonies in 2012," he said.

Organisers of the 2012 Games last month unveiled plans for a 70-day torch relay leading up to the Games, which start on July 27 and close on August 12.

The Olympic flame will arrive in Britain on May 18, 2012 and tour the country before reaching London on the weekend before the Games begin in the British capital.

About 8,000 mostly young people are expected to be chosen to carry the torch around Britain. The aim will be that 95 per cent of Britons will be within an hour of the flame's route.

Britain's new sports and Olympics minister told London 2012 organisers last month that they must cut £27 million (€32 million) from their budget.

But Hugh Robertson insisted the cuts - which come as part of a plan to reduce overall government spending - could be made without harming London's ability to deliver a successful Olympic Games.