Leigh first had the idea for the story while a student in Manchester in the early 1950s : " We had a very enlightened teacher who endlessly reminded us that the next total eclipse would be in August 1999 . Later I started thinking about the millennium and the end of the world . In 1992 the millennium was impending , so I brought that idea to the film . " In 1965 , Leigh had teamed up with David Halliwell , hired the Unity Theatre for a fortnight , and directed the first production of Halliwell 's '' Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs '' . According to theater critic Michael Coveney , " Malcolm Scrawdyke is clearly a precursor of Johnny in '' Naked '' . Scrawdyke was a loutish art student and absurd ideologue from Huddersfield who had trouble with girls and a hatred for his teachers ... the play shared a deeply felt schoolboy coarseness with Alfred Jarry 's '' Ubu Roi '' , a piece originally written as a vicious attack on a loathed mathematics master . " Leigh 's method , as in all his character dramas , consisted of elaborate improvisational rehearsals with the cast to develop the background stories and traits of their characters . The actors interacted with the outside world and with each other while in character until Leigh told them to come out of character and be themselves . The dialogue produced from these interactions was then edited , or " distilled " to form the script , based on a minimal plot outline by Leigh . The cast was not allowed to discuss their characters with one another outside of rehearsals , as Leigh , for realism , would rather they meet and interact as they would in real life . Thewlis 's background reading for the part of Johnny included Voltaire 's '' Candide '' , the teachings of Buddha and James Gleick 's '' Chaos '' , as well as the Bible and the Qur ' an
next total eclipse would be in August 1999
Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999
Naked (1993 film)