George Lucas is to open a new $1 billion (£825 million) art museum in Los Angeles.
The Star Wars creator’s Museum of Narrative Art will be located in the city’s Exposition Park, the LA Times reports.
The museum will feature Lucas’s personal collection of fine and popular art, as well as various Star Wars-related items such as the original Darth Vader mask. Lucas has said he will plough a total of $1 billion into the project, consisting of building casts, his own art collection and an endowment for future additions.
Lucas chose the LA location after weighing up a rival pitch from a location in San Francisco.
DreamWorks Animation’s Chief Executive hailed Lucas’s decision to build the museum in LA, saying: “This will be a transformative opportunity for LA. First and foremost for our residents, who are going to have an outstanding cultural, iconic new force here — the force will be with us — and I think for tourism, and for the continued, extraordinary transformation of downtown Los Angeles, and for Exposition Park and the other museums it will be joining.”
It was revealed last month (December) that Lucas, who sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion (£3.3 billion), “really liked” the franchise’s latest film, spin-off Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that the relationship between Luke Skywalker and Rey is set to be a major part of the forthcoming and as-yet-untitled Star Wars Episode 8.