George Walton Lucas Jr. (known professionally as onlyGeorge Lucas) is most recognized for inventing Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, and THX. He was the chairman of Lucasfilm when it was sold to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Lucas saidduring the sale, “I’ve always believed thatStar Warscould live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime,” and that “having a new home within the Disney organization,Star Warswill certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come.”
Indeed, Lucas' films are among the top 100 grossing pictures in North America, perBox Office Mojo. By the timeStar Warswas sold, he had already won several awards. In 2006, he received the AFI Life Achievement Award, and one year later, Barack Obama gave him the National Medal of Arts. In 2015, he earned Kennedy Center Honors and was honored as a Disney Legend. Here are a few of the things Lucas been doing recently.
George Lucas' Charitable Foundations
The George Lucas Educational Foundation was established in 1991 as a nonprofit operating foundation to honor and foster educational innovation. The foundation’s material is accessible through the Edutopia brand, an award-winning website, social media, and documentary films.
During the Lucasfilm sale in 2012, it was generally believed that Lucas wanted to donate the majority of the money to charity. “George Lucas has expressed his intention, in the event the deal closes, to donate the majority of the proceeds to his philanthropic endeavors,” a Lucasfilm representative explained to The Hollywood Reporter.
Over the years Lucas has also donated to a number of other charities. These include the construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the University of Southern California film department, the Chicago-based non-profit After School Matters, and the Barack Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side.
Related:Star Wars: Why George Lucas Hates Jabba the Hutt
Creating an Art Museum
When the concept for a museum first arose in 2013, Lucas initially planned for it to be housed in San Francisco. After that agreement fell through, Lucas looked into another prospective partnership with Chicago’s Museum Campus. A lawsuit filed by a local preservation organization stopped that location from being built. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open in Los Angeles in 2025, according to current plans.
The museum itself has commented:
“As the first museum to focus exclusively on storytelling through images, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art™ believes that visual storytelling can connect us and help shape a more just society. With a growing collection that encompasses artworks from across cultures, places, times, and mediums, including paintings, sculptures, murals, photography, comic art, book and magazine illustrations, and the arts of filmmaking, the Lucas Museum will explore narrative art’s potential to prompt questions, invite opinions, inspire community, and move people to think about the impact of images on our world.
Co-founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson and led by director and CEO Sandra Jackson-Dumont, the Lucas Museum was designed by renowned architect Ma Yansong of MAD Architects with Stantec as executive architect and will open in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park in 2025. An 11-acre campus with extensive new green space designed by Studio-MLA will embrace the museum’s 300,000-square-foot building, which will feature expansive galleries, two state-of-the-art theaters, and dedicated spaces for learning and engagement, dining, retail, and events.”
Related:THX1138: The George Lucas Movie Even Star Wars Haters Should Watch
Star Wars / Lucasfilm Involvement
After selling Lucasfilm, Lucas served as a creative consultant on the first film in theStar Warssequel trilogy,The Force Awakens, formally giving over the directing baton to J.J. Abrams, who directed the first and third movies ofthe sequel era. Lucas was also engaged in the creation of variousStar WarsTV series, includingThe Mandalorian, which are currently available on Disney+.
Lucas has stated that selling Lucasfilm was a difficult process, according toCBR. Disney was not required to employLucas' plot outlinesfor his intendedStar Warssequels as part of the $4.05 billion agreement, and they did not. He may not have had the highest regard for Disney’s completed goods, but it’s simple to see why. Spending nearly 40 years crafting the tale and then seeing it concluded differently by someone else must have been tough.
Rumors abound that Lucas will return from retirement to work on aStar Warspicture, but nothing has been confirmed. Some claim he’ll rectify the controversial changes he made to his original films, while others say he’ll helm one episode of aStar Warsseries. There is no shortage of speculation regarding the director on the internet. However, it should be noted that all of this is purely rumor. Since 2012, Lucas has made no public declarations concerning his retirement status.
