Danny Boyle calls for beaches tribute for Armistice centenary

Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle is inviting people to gather on Britain's beaches to mark the centenary of Armistice Day.

The filmmaker told Sky News that across the country, vast portraits of people who were affected by the First World War will be drawn on the sands in commemoration on 11 November.

Speaking as he launched the Pages Of The Sea project in Folkestone, he said: "The idea was to come to the beach and create a work of art, and to say goodbye to all the people who left from these beaches a hundred years ago.

"We're going to create a vast, huge portrait on the beach of the particular person that's picked for reasons of connection to a local community.

"On this beach, it's Wilfred Owen, the greatest poet of World War I, who left from this harbour for France, who swam in this water apparently the day before he left for France."

After Boyle's stunning success organising the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London in 2012, it is hoped he will once again capture the mood of the nation.

He says he hopes his latest project, which will also see a poem by Carol Ann Duffy being read out by individuals, families and communities as they gather on the beaches, will compliment the more formal commemorations being organised to mark the day the Great War ended.

"It was a great privilege, an incredible experience to do it (the Olympics opening ceremony)," he said. "Most of that experience is about the volunteers who came to the stadium and rehearsed and made the show, really.

"This is sort of it in reverse - we're going to the communities, to their places and hope that they turn up with the same spirit."

Boyle, famous for films including Trainspotting, The Beach and Slumdog Millionaire, was tasked with the project by 14-18 Now, a programme of arts commissions marking the First World War centenary which has enlisted more than 300 artists over the last five years.

His will mark the final commission in a series which has been seen by more than 30 million people in total - its aim being to bring the stories and individuals involved and lost in the war to life.

Danny says being involved has already changed his perspective on how the war should be remembered in future.

"When I thought of it originally, it was about saying a final goodbye," he said.

"I don't know whether it should be a final goodbye, that's something for the country to decide really. It seems like 100 years, is that enough, can we keep doing that? I sort of changed my mind about that now, I sort of feel we should keep doing it.

"The more you research about these people, when you think about whose portrait it should be, the more they come alive to you despite the time and their passing."

Details of the project were announced after the filmmaker dropped out of directing the next Bond film , starring Daniel Craig, blaming "creative differences".

Asked if he had any words of advice for Cary Fukunaga , who has replaced Boyle as director, he told reporters: "We're talking about real heroes today rather than fictional ones."

He did not want to discuss 007 while talking about his plans for Armistice Day, but said he was pleased stepping away from the film has given him "a bit more time to dedicate to this, which is great".

Boyle will now join a long line of artists who have shaped perceptions of the Great War over the last 100 years, re-inventing the traditional war memorial and helping the nation remember.