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Oscar Winning Director Danny Boyle Says He Turned Down A Knighthood

Danny Boyle: I Turned Down a Knighthood
PA
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Oscar winner Danny Boyle said he turned down a knighthood because "it's just not me".

Boyle, 56, was in line for the New Year Honours list for his work in masterminding London's highly praised £27 million Olympic opening ceremony.

Boyle said he would not have felt right accepting an individual award as the ceremony's artistic director when a cast of thousands, including the Queen being parachuted out of a helicopter, helped create it.

"It's just not me. I also thought it was wrong, actually," he told the Radio Times.

"You can make these speeches about 'this is everybody's work, blah blah blah'. And you've got to mean it, and I did mean it, and it is true, and it's the only way you can carry on something like that: through the efforts of all the people. I don't know whether I'll ever get invited back to the Palace."

He and his artistic team sent a "script" to Buckingham Palace in the hope Queen would agree to a surprise appearance in the James Bond skit, which saw her accompanied to the Games by Britain's top secret agent.

The unexpected scene was one of the quirky highlights of the ceremony.

He said: "Basically we thought there are two scenarios: they'll either agree, provided we do it with a good double (and we promised them that we'd either get a really good actor, a Helen Mirren-style actor, or we'd get a cracking double, so it wasn't poking fun), or it will be a no."

Trainspotting, a film about Edinburgh junkies, was one of Boyle's earliest big-screen hits. He is hoping to get the cast - Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Ewen Bremner - back together for the 20th anniversary.

He is working on a couple of scripts with Trainspotting screenwriter John Hodge, including a "loose" first draft based on Irvine Welsh novel Porno, his sequel to Trainspotting.

Boyle said: "I'd love that to happen at some point. To get them back, Likely Lads style, 20 years later, carrying that experience as people and as characters.

"If we can get the script right, I think they'll do it. But we'll see."

Slumdog Millionaire
The 81st Academy Awards - Press Room - Los Angeles(01 of14)
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Danny Boyle with the Best Director award, received for Slumdog Millionaire, at the 81st Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles. (credit:PA)
The London Critics' Circle Film Awards - London(02 of14)
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Dev Patel arriving for The London Critics' Circle Film Awards, at Grosvenor House Hotel in central London. (credit:PA)
Indian child actress Rubina Ali who play(03 of14)
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Indian child actress Rubina Ali who played the young Latika in the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire stands in front of her gutted makeshift shack at the Gharib Nagar slum in Mumbai on March 5, 2011. A major fire gutted a large slum settlement, home to hundreds of residents, next to Bandra station in Mumbai's suburbs. No casualties were reported.. AFP PHOTO/Sajjad HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(FILES) This December 30, 2009 file phot(04 of14)
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(FILES) This December 30, 2009 file photograph shows 'Slumdog Millionaire' child actor Rubina Ali Qureshi (C) watching as Indian Civic authorities demolish the shanty where she resides in Mumbai. An Indian girl who was plucked from poverty to act in the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire is to star in a new film with Hollywood legend Anthony Hopkins, Rubina's manager said on March 14, 2012. AFP PHOTO/Sajjad HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Film4 Summer Screen At Somerset House: Slumdog Millionaire(05 of14)
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LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 02: **UK TABLOID NEWSPAPERS OUT** Dev Patel and Freida Pinto attend a photo opportunity before introducing a showing of Slumdog Millionaire at the Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House on August 2, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Fergus McDonald/ Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Film4 Summer Screen At Somerset House: Slumdog Millionaire(06 of14)
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LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 02: **UK TABLOID NEWSPAPERS OUT** Freida Pinto attends a photo opportunity before introducing a showing of Slumdog Millionaire at the Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House on August 2, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Fergus McDonald/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Slumdog Millionaire Actor Mohammed Azaruddin Is given New House(07 of14)
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MUMBAI, INDIA - JULY 07: Mohammed Azharuddin Ismail (L), child star of the Oscar winning 'Slumdog Millionaire' celebrating his newly allocated 250 square foot apartment by 'Jai Ho' trust in Santacruz in the Western Mumbai Suburbs with his family on July 7, 2009 in Mumbai, India. (Photo by Ritam Banerjee/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Indian actor and Slumdog Millionaire sta(08 of14)
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Indian actor and Slumdog Millionaire star Anil Kapoor attends a workshop at the Venetian Hotel on the third and final day of the 10th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards in Macau on June 13, 2009. India's movie stars descended on the southern Chinese city of Macau for the 'Bollywood Oscars' weekend, an annual showcase for one of the world's most ambitious and prolific film industries. AFP PHOTO / ED JONES (Photo credit should read ED Jones/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Slumdog Millionaire child stars attend t(09 of14)
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Slumdog Millionaire child stars attend the 'green carpet' before a fashion show held at the Venetian Hotel during the 10th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards in Macau on June 12, 2009. India's movie stars descended on the southern Chinese city of Macau for the 'Bollywood Oscars' weekend, an annual showcase for one of the world's most ambitious and prolific film industries. AFP PHOTO/Pal PILLAI (Photo credit should read PAL PILLAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Director of Oscar winning movie 'Slumdog(10 of14)
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Director of Oscar winning movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', Danny Boyle (R) and child star of the film, Mohammad Azharuddin listen during a press conference in Mumbai on May 27, 2009. Boyle announced that the two stars Azharuddin and Rubina Ali are to get new permanent homes in the city after both of their illegal shanties were recently razed by the civic authorities as a routine illegal encroachment clean-up drive. More than half of Mumbai's estimated 18 million residents live in either designated slums or illegal shanties but Mumbai city's municipal authorities readily admit that they can do little to stop the makeshift homes being rebuilt because of the city's acute housing shortage. AFP PHOTO/Sajjad HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Director of Oscar winning movie 'Slumdog(11 of14)
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Director of Oscar winning movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', Danny Boyle (R), producer Christian Colson (L) and child star Rubina Ali share a light moment during a press conference in Mumbai on May 27, 2009. Boyle announced that the two stars Azharuddin and Rubina Ali are to get new permanent homes in the city after both of their illegal shanties were recently razed by the civic authorities as a routine illegal encroachment clean-up drive. More than half of Mumbai's estimated 18 million residents live in either designated slums or illegal shanties but Mumbai city's municipal authorities readily admit that they can do little to stop the makeshift homes being rebuilt because of the city's acute housing shortage. AFP PHOTO/Sajjad HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire's(12 of14)
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Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire's child star Rubina Ali walks in front of her demolished shanty in Mumbai on May 21, 2009. The ramshackle home of nine-year-old Rubina Ali was one of about 25 properties near train tracks in the Gareeb Nagar slum in central Mumbai that was torn down. Rubina played the young Latika, the main female character in the Oscar-winning film. More than half of Mumbai's estimated 18 million residents live in either designated slums or illegal shanties. Many of them are next to sewers which overflow during heavy rains. But Mumbai city's municipal authorities readily admit that they can do little to stop the makeshift homes being rebuilt because of the city's acute housing shortage. AFP PHOTO/Sajjad HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire's(13 of14)
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Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire's child star Azharuddin Ismail rides his bicycle outside his recently demolished shanty in Mumbai on May 14, 2009. Work to clear illegally-built lean-tos and tarpaulin-covered huts is a regular occurrence, but the authorities readily admit that they can do little to stop them being rebuilt, given the city's acute housing shortage. AFP PHOTO/PAL PILLAI (Photo credit should read PAL PILLAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Father Of Slumdog Actress Rubina Ali Denies Adoption Speculation(14 of14)
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MUMBAI (BOMBAY), INDIA - APRIL 22: Munni, the foster Mother of Rubina Ali, of Slumdog Millionaire fame, plays with her children inside her home at Garib Nagar, April 22, 2009 in the slums of Bandra, Mumbai. The father of nine-year-old Rubina has denied claims that he is trying to sell her. Furthermore, Rafiq Qureshi claims he was attempting to negotiate a new film role for his daughter. Munni was involved in a scuffle in the street regarding Rubina this week. (Photo by Ritam Banerjee/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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