Boyle -- who's serving as artistic director for the ceremony -- revealed this week that the Olympic Stadium will be transformed into the "British countryside" for the opening scene, complete with meadows, two mosh pits representing the Glastonbury festival and the Last Night of the Proms, and a menagerie of animals including 30 sheep.
Oh, and the world's largest "harmonically tuned" bell, because as long as Boyle's throwing random stuff together, why not?
According to the BBC, the opening scene of the ceremony has been dubbed "Green and Pleasant," with fields, rivers, farmers tilling the soil, farmyard animals and other symbols of the bucolic life. Boyle said that the show will be inspired by Shakespeare's "The Tempest," and would depict a land rebounding from its industrial legacy.
The show, Boyle added "a picture of ourselves as a nation."
As for the 23-ton bell, that was crafted by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry?
"That's how communities notified each other that something important was going to happen," Boyle explained. "[A]fter the war the bells were rung in London to announce the peace and we will begin our Games with a symbol of peace."
The opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics takes place July 27. You might want to pack your overalls.
