Paris taps French stage director Thomas Jolly for Olympic opening

Paris Olympic organizers appointed prize-winning French theater director Thomas Jolly to direct the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2024 Games and the Paralympics.

As artistic director, the 40-year-old Jolly will be tasked with bringing to life Paris' ambitious plan to hold the July 26, 2024, opening ceremony in the French capital's city center, along the Seine River, taking it out of the traditional Olympic Stadium setting for the first time.

Paris organizing committee head Tony Estanguet said Jolly knows how to break norms and take them to the next level and that he'll be able to imagine unprecedented artistic concepts for the shows.

Estanguet also said the Place de la Concorde, the large central Paris square where King Louis XVI and others were executed during the French Revolution, is being considered as a venue for the Paralympic opening ceremony, which Jolly will also direct.

The closing ceremonies will be held at the Stade de France, the stadium that hosted the World C