George Lucas plans billion dollar Star Wars museum in LA
The Museum of Narrative Art will exhibit a collection chosen from 40,000 paintings, illustrations and film-related items
Los Angeles has won the battle against San Francisco to host Star Wars creator George Lucas’ Museum of Narrative Art.
Lucas has been trying to build the museum for a decade, and will finance the expected $1bn (£0.8bn) worth of costs himself.
The project's organisers announced that after "extensive due diligence and deliberation" LA had been chosen over San Francisco. The force, it seems, was with Los Angeles.
Exhibiting art and memorabilia from the Star Wars franchise – including Darth Vader’s mask – the museum will bring in a vast wave of tourism to the city. Lucas’ life work and huge film history collection will also be shown, including pieces from The Wizard of Oz and Casablanca.
The museum will be built in Exposition Park, near other attractions like the Natural History Museum, the California African American Museum and the California Science Center.
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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement that his city was "the ideal place for making sure that it touches the widest possible audience".
"We went after it with everything we have," he added.
Originally, Lucas had planned to build the museum in Chicago, but opposition from the local community led to the proposal being abandoned last year.
San Francisco had offered a site on Treasure Island, in the middle of San Francisco Bay, but failed to win over the project's organisers. Instead, the new museum will sit near the University of Southern California, where George Lucas studied film in the 1970s.
