Billy Elliot is a 2000 British dance drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall. The film stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, Gary Lewis as his father, Jamie Draven as Billy’s older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher. Billy Elliot received positive critical response and commercial success, earning USD 109. 3 million worldwide on a USD 5 million budget. In 2001, the film was adapted into a novel by Melvin Burgess. The story was also adapted for the West End stage as Billy Elliot the Musical in 2005; it opened in Australia in 2007 and on Broadway in 2008.
About Billy Elliot in brief
Billy Elliot is a 2000 British dance drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall. The film stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, Gary Lewis as his father, Jamie Draven as Billy’s older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher. Billy Elliot received positive critical response and commercial success, earning USD 109. 3 million worldwide on a USD 5 million budget. In 2001, the film was adapted into a novel by Melvin Burgess. The story was also adapted for the West End stage as Billy Elliot the Musical in 2005; it opened in Australia in 2007 and on Broadway in 2008. In 2009, Hall said that every frame of Billy Elliot was influenced by Step Shields’s book, Step, about a dancing school in nearby North Shields. The movie was also influenced by photographer Sirkka Kontinen’s book Step, which was about a school in Tyne and Wear, about dancing in nearby Newcastle upon Tyne, and was heavily influenced by the photographer’s work on the play, Dancer, which premiered at the Live Theatre in Newcastle in 1998. It was released on 29 September 2000 by Universal Pictures, and received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Bell. It has also been adapted for a musical, Billy Elliot The Musical, which opened in London in 2005 and in Australia and New Zealand in 2007. The musical is based on a play called Dancer by Hall, and has been performed by Matthew Bourne, Julie Walters, Jamie Bell and others on the London stage as well as in the UK and the US.
It is set during the 1984–85 miners’ strike in County Durham, England. Billy’s father sends him to the gym to learn boxing, but Billy dislikes the sport. He happens to see a ballet class that is using the gym while their usual basement studio is being used temporarily as a soup kitchen for the striking miners. When Jackie discovers this, he forbids Billy to take any more ballet classes. Billy secretly continues his lessons with the help of his dance teacher, Sandra Wilkinson. Jackie catches Billy and Michael dancing in the gym and realises his son is truly gifted; he resolves to do whatever it takes to help Billy attain his dream. Billy misses the audition for the Royal Ballet School in London, but Sandra tells Jackie about the missed opportunity, but fearing that Billy will be considered to be gay, both Jackie and Tony are outraged at the prospect of him becoming a professional ballet dancer. Although very nervous, Billy performs well, but he punches another boy in frustration at the audition, and fears that he has ruined his chances of attaining his dream, and is rebuked by the review board. Seemingly rejected, Billy returns home with his father and Billy leaves home for London.
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