Word on the street is that Danny Boyle is the front-runner to direct the opening ceremony of London's 2012 Summer Olympics. Such an endeavor would easily be the most ambitious undertaking of the 53-year-old Oscar-winner's career -- but that's not to say he's not qualified. With the help of 2012's weird little mascots Wenlock and Mandeville, let's have a look at five Boyle films that might inform his imminent world-class effort.
· Trainspotting (1996)
Boyle's second feature brought the insanity, humor, hallucinations and horror of Irvine Welsh's novel of heroin addiction to vivid life. But it also demonstrated the filmmaker's grasp of dramatic exits and entrances -- such as Mark Renton's (Ewan McGregor) suppository-rescuing detour into the Worst Toilet in Scotland. Such visualization on a budget will go a long way toward surpassing Zhang Yimou's lavish (if overpriced) spectacle in Beijing in 2008.
· The Beach (2000)
Boyle's half-impressionistic, half-incomprehensible studio breakthrough proved he could play well with egos, too. But the real legacies of his Leonardo Di Caprio-in-island hell opus might be the years' worth of lawsuits accusing Fox of irreparably destroying Thailand's beach setting, not to mention the government's attempts to ban the film for its depiction of the country as a drug hotbed. Expect a Thai team boycott, or at least some stadium sabotage of some kind.
· 28 Days Later (2002)
London overrun by zombies! Is there any more apt metaphor for the 2012 Summer Olympics?
· Sunshine (2007)
There is no substitute for experience, and Boyle's underrated sci-fi headscratcher proved that he could work conceptually with an international cast. With the glaring exception that (SPOILER ALERT) everyone dies in the end, this film may be the most important qualification on his resume.
· Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Every Olympics opening ceremony features lots and lots of kids, and Boyle works with them as well as any director in the business. The only downside is the potential market glut from parents attempting to sell them afterward, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anything else?