Wielding a silver shovel instead of a lightsaber, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas joined a handful of elected officials Wednesday in breaking ground on a billion-dollar museum dedicated to the art of visual storytelling.
Construction of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a dream of the 73-year-old writer-director for more than a decade, is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
Trucks rumbled by the museum site near downtown Los Angeles as Lucas, dressed casually in a white- and blue-checkered shirt, jeans and tennis shoes, thanked more than 100 well-wishers. Among them was his collaborator and longtime friend, director Steven Spielberg.
"I think it's important to have a museum that, as I was joking and saying, supports all the orphan arts that nobody else wants to see, but that everybody loves," Lucas said, describing the project.
His museum's mission, he added, will be to explain the myths, legends, stories and More