Danny Boyle reveals he lost key staff member after end of US writers’ strike

Danny Boyle has said the end of the writers’ strike led to him losing a key staff member to the US.

On Wednesday, the British director, who won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire in 2009, spoke at the opening of Factory International’s Aviva Studios – Manchester’s new cultural venue.

He is part of a team behind Free Your Mind, a large-scale performance utilising dance and immersive design based on The Matrix, which includes Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante, Es Devlin, and Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy.

The director of the 2012 London Olympics discussed the project and addressed wider issues affecting the arts industry, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strikes, which have come to an end.

Speaking to the PA news agency, the 66-year-old filmmaker said: “There are some massive issues going on about the future of the industry, some of them are entwined with AI as we know and indeed we don’t shy away from that.

“Our show begins with an AI moment, if you like, an extended AI moment.

“We’re going to be dealing with it (AI) constantly for the future. So you can see the (writers’) strike has been partly as a result of that and partly as a result of conditions that are changing because of the streaming industries, and we’ve all been supportive of that and our writer was supportive of that.

“She’s gone back to work now. That’s why she’s not here.

“She was on a writers’ group in LA, which has started up again, so she’s gone back.

“So we’ve lost her and the timing of that wasn’t very good for us, but still, you have to respect it. She’s got a family to support and so off she’s gone.”

Explaining why dance was used as a performative medium for the show, Boyle added: “The idea that you could bring the dance lens to The Matrix… makes a lot of sense.

“You think about the film, it’s very movement based, in a way, one of the things it’s looking at is the relationship between man and machine.

“What better way to explore that, live, than through dance.

“Then you think, well, what a way to open a building, because The Matrix has the advantage of being in the common language of so many people, there are no barriers… it’s not an intellectual barrier to people.

“It is in the common language, it’s pop culture as well.

“It’s very much through its comics, through The Animatrix, and through its appeal as a Hollywood blockbuster that worked.

“So it felt like those things could come together and form a great platform for a space like this to open… you’ve got to tell people, it’s here and you’ve got to tell them, even more importantly, that it’s theirs.”

Chairman of Arts Council England (ACE) Sir Nicholas Serota was also at the opening of the public arts space and spoke about the future of the English National Opera (ENO).

On Sunday night, the ENO said it was “surprised” to learn that its music director Martyn Brabbins, who has been in the position since 2016, had “decided to end his tenure … so abruptly”.

Brabbins’ departure followed the announcement of a proposal to axe 19 orchestral positions and employ its remaining musicians on part-time contracts, a move the Musicians’ Union says it will reject.

ACE announced in January that it would be spending £11.46 million in 2023 to sustain a programme of work in London while helping it to start planning for a new base outside London by 2026.

Speaking about the British opera company and its planned relocation, Sir Nicholas said: “ENO themselves have always said that they wanted to do performance outside London and when they applied to the Arts Council for funding for the next three years, they said they wanted to do more outside London, well we took them at their word.

“We probably took them a bit further than they had originally anticipated.

“But I think that the team there is absolutely determined to bring opera to new audiences and whether that’s in Manchester or Liverpool or Birmingham or any of the other cities that are under consideration – that’s really exciting for people who live outside London.

“And it’s good for ENO as well in terms of developing their programme, they will then bring to London things they’ve done in Manchester or Birmingham or wherever they decide to land.

“And by Christmas we’ll know where they’re going to set up shop and from that point on, I think we’ll start to see things coming together.”