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New Lucasfilm Campus Breaks Ground at Presidio
GuyMannDude writes "Lucasfilm has broken ground on the new $300 million special effects campus that he hopes will help San Francisco rival Hollywood as a producer of movie magic. Some see the project as a way for the Presidio (a national park) to become economically self-sufficient while critics claim that level of commercialization is unnecessary."
Which dark lord will win? George Lucas, or the faceless conglomeration known as Hollywood?
Well, at least there'll be more work up north, though with Davis taxing things, that might not last too long...
Hopefully the Lucas compound will be able to use the close connections to create better products all around. Lucasarts has produced some great games over the years but the teams have always had a hard time dealing with NDA agreements with the other Lucas companies and tailoring a specific game to an upcoming movie release.
With everything in one boat maybe future titles will improve upon titles such as Bounty Hunter which surely could have been much better if the process was streamlined better internally.
I'd rather see Lucas break ground on a writer's workshop.
Romana: "How did you know?" Doctor Who: "Ah, well, knowing is easy. Everyone does THAT ad nauseum. I just sort of hope"
I am sure this will be useful to other producers as well. There is such a demand for land and room to do movie effects that this should really make it a lot easier to film movies in a timely fashion. As well as bring in cash for LucasFilm when they decide to rent out some of their campus. Very smart move.
Perhaps it's just my jaded and cynical view of recent movies, but it seems that this new San Francisco-based studio wouldn't really have to do a great deal to rival Hollywood as a great movie producing town. Sure, Hollywood has the name, and has a long and glorious history, but the really good, honestly-worth-seeing films of the last few years have come out of other countries, not Hollywood. LOTR is just one example one that immediately pops to mind. Star Wars of course was done in England (and Marin, CA, of course). Lest anyone forget, The Matrix was an Aussie production. A personaly favorite of mine, The Boondock Saints was East-Coast, USA made. My list here is short for the point of brevity, not due to a lack of examples.
The last really good Hollywood production I saw was The Score. Hollywood may have a name synnonymous with movie making, but ? at least recently ? not so synnonymous with good movie making.
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I'm sick and tired of being responsible for the preservation of the universe and its outlying suburbs.
A special effects campus? Sounds fun! You walk in and every room is blue - the campus is added in using special effects. Watch out for the destroyer droids. ;)
San Francisco has the only bars stranger than a Mos Eisley cantina.
As a resident of San Francisco, I feel I should point out some things that were not made clear in the article. First, the Lucas facility will not be in any of the beautiful wooded park land that most people associate with Presidio National Park. Rather, it is right under the 101 freeway overpass and built on the site of an old Army hospital that has been nothing more than pavement and abandoned buildings for decades. It is on the edge of the park and will not affect any major throughfares into or through the park. None of the parks wilderness is threatened by the project. You bring up a good point about paranoia and security. The Lucas companies are very security conscious to the point of paranoia. Granted, some of that is justified as they have had a great deal of problems with people trying to break into their facilities, fans rummaging through the garbage, etc. I don't see security being as much an issue as it is easier to secure a small group of tightly knit bulidings than many locations in Marin that share office space or parking lots with other businesses. The complex doesn't envellop any major roads into the park, so I doubt that there would be any effect of park traffic due to security concerns. Overall, I think the move is a positive one for the Presidio. They get a non-polluting business on the edge of their property to help keep them self sufficient. None of the park will be ruined by the development and access to the park should not be affected. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
While thinking philosophically, we see problems in places where there are none. -Wittgenstein