Danny Boyle has said that the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012 will be more relaxed than that seen in Beijing in 2008.
The filmmaker will oversee the ceremony, which is being produced by Stephen Daldry with input from writer Frank Cottrell Boyce and several designers.
Boyle told The Observer: "We are at the stage of working through principles. It's a weird one, because of course you can do anything at all. What we think is that Beijing was the end of a certain kind of ceremony, that epic scale.
"The thing about the stadium is that it has the same number of seats as Beijing but is half the size. It is a more intimate space. So that's what we are thinking. We want to keep it on a human scale. It won't be such a spectacle... in a good way, we hope."
Asked if he was having sleepless nights due to the event, he replied: "Nah. It could be intimidating. But if people like me and Daldry can't cope with that, then we shouldn't be in the business.
"Most of all I think we understand something about this country. We are not about showing off shiny badges about ourselves. I mean China has to go: 'Look at us we are a very serious nation'.
"But we are so much in a post-post stage of that seriousness about ourselves that I think we have to reflect that. To be a bit more idiosyncratic and relaxed."
When it was suggested it could be an 'ironic opening ceremony', Boyle responded: "Well I don't know about that. But what I do know is that after a couple of years of this coalition government we may well all be looking for a bit of light relief."
