Skywalker Ranch | |
---|---|
Location | Marin County, California, U.S. |
Nearest city | Novato |
Coordinates | 38°3′43″N122°38′38″W / 38.06194°N 122.64389°W |
Area | 4,700 acres (1,900 ha) |
Owned by | George Lucas |
Skywalker Ranch is a movie ranch and the workplace of film director, writer and producer George Lucas located in a secluded area near Nicasio, California, in Marin County. The ranch is located on Lucas Valley Road, named after an early-20th-century landowner in the area of no relation to George Lucas. [1] The ranch is now open to the public.
The principal operation of the facility is as a motion picture sound mixing and recording facility. Other Lucasfilm properties provide animation and visual effects; Skywalker handles sound, music, and allied services.
In September 1978, George Lucas purchased the first parcel of land, and named it Bulltail Ranch, which in subsequent years became Skywalker Ranch. [2] Lucasfilm acquired 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of adjoining land for a total of over 4,700 acres (1,900 ha). Only 15 acres (6.1 ha) have been developed. [3] Residents of the area have fought his plan to build a larger studio on the property, citing light and noise pollution. [4]
The Ranch contains a barn with animals, vineyards, a garden with fruits and vegetables used in the on-site restaurant, an outdoor swimming pool and fitness center with racquetball courts, the man-made "Ewok Lake", a hilltop observatory, a 300-seat theater called "The Stag" as well as theater screening rooms, and parking that is mostly concealed underground to preserve the natural landscape. [5] Skywalker Sound was moved onto the ranch in 1987, now occupying the Technical Building. [6] The Main House has a company research library under a stained-glass dome. [1] Skywalker Ranch has its own fire station; it is part of the Marin County mutual aid system and is often called on to assist firefighters in nearby Marinwood. [1]
Skywalker Ranch is intended to be more of a "filmmaker's retreat" than a headquarters for Lucas's business operations. The headquarters of Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, and LucasArts (now Lucasfilm Games) are located in Lucas's Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco. [5] [7] The George Lucas Educational Foundation is based at the Ranch. Skywalker Sound remains based at the Ranch, for which Lucasfilm pays a rental fee to George Lucas, who remains the property's owner. [8] Although Lucas maintains his offices there, he does not reside at the Ranch. [1] Lucasfilm Games was located at the ranch during the early company years. [9]
Big Rock Ranch is a later Lucasfilm development in Marin county at 3800 Lucas Valley Road [10] adjacent to Skywalker Ranch. The county's planning commission approved this facility in September 1996 [10] and construction was completed in August 2002. [11] However, in November 2004, Lucas announced that the 250 employees of the ranch were to be moved to the Letterman Digital Arts Center. [12]
The ranch comprises 1,061 acres (429 ha), of which 43 acres (17 ha) are developed with 317,000 sq ft (29,500 m2) of office space. [11] Before the move to the Presidio in 2005, Big Rock Ranch housed the marketing, licensing, distribution and online divisions of Lucasfilm. [12] As of 2007 [update] it was the headquarters of the animation division. [13] In 2018, Big Rock Ranch was renovated into an opulent, 56-room resort called "Summit at Skywalker Ranch". The facility hosts exclusive corporate retreat events. [14]
Starting in 1988, Lucasfilm sought approval to develop another nearby property called Grady Ranch at 2400 Lucas Valley Road. [10] The most recent proposals called for a 263,701-square-foot (24,498.6 m2) digital film production center for the property. However, in the wake of delays caused by local resistance and environmental concerns, Lucas abandoned these plans in April 2012 and has instead decided to sell the land. [15] [16]
Lucas also owns McGuire Ranch (3801 Lucas Valley Road [10] ) and Loma Alta Ranch (4001 Lucas Valley Road [10] ) in Marin County. [15]
George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Nominated for four Academy Awards, he is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster. Despite this, he has remained an independent filmmaker away from Hollywood for most of his career.
Lucasfilm Games is an American video game licensor and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a larger 1990 reorganization of the Lucasfilm divisions, the video game development division was grouped and rebranded as part of LucasArts. LucasArts became known for its line of adventure games based on its SCUMM engine in the 1990s, including Maniac Mansion, the Monkey Island series, and several Indiana Jones titles. A number of influential game developers were alumni of LucasArts from this period, including Brian Moriarty, Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and Dave Grossman. Later, as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over the Star Wars franchise, LucasArts produced numerous action-based Star Wars titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while dropping adventure game development due to waning interest in the genre.
The Presidio of San Francisco is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It has been a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios since 2012 and is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects, sound, and computer animation for films.
Scouting in California has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs related to their environments.
Lucas Valley-Marinwood is a census-designated place (CDP) in Marin County, California, United States. It includes the neighborhoods of Lucas Valley and Marinwood. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,259.
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion digital studio that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began production on the original Star Wars, now the fourth episode of the Skywalker Saga.
The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a special district operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of regional parks which is the largest urban regional park district in the United States. The administrative office is located in Oakland.
Henry W. Coe State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving a vast tract of the Diablo Range. The park is located closest to the city of Morgan Hill, and is located in both Santa Clara and Stanislaus counties. The park contains over 87,000 acres (35,000 ha), making it the largest state park in northern California, and the second-largest in the state. Managed within its boundaries is a designated wilderness area of about 22,000 acres (8,900 ha). This is officially known as the Henry W. Coe State Wilderness, but locally as the Orestimba Wilderness. The 89,164-acre (36,083 ha) park was established in 1959.
Lucas Valley is a valley in Marin County, California, drained to the east into San Pablo Bay by Miller Creek, as well as an unincorporated community in the valley, which forms part of the Lucas Valley-Marinwood CDP.
Nicasio is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Marin County, California, United States. It is located 8 miles (13 km) west-southwest of Novato, at an elevation of 194 feet (59 m). As of the 2020 census the CDP population was 81, while population estimates for the surrounding area range from about 600 to about 900 people.
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a United States national recreation area containing many individual parks and open space preserves, located primarily in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. The SMMNRA is in the greater Los Angeles region, with two thirds of the parklands in northwest Los Angeles County, and the remaining third, including a Simi Hills extension, in southeastern Ventura County.
The Star Wars sequel trilogy is the third trilogy of the main Star Wars franchise, an American space opera created by George Lucas. It is produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The trilogy consists of episodes VII through IX, chronologically following the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy, serving as the final act of the "Skywalker Saga". Lucas had planned a sequel trilogy as early as 1976, but canceled it by 1981. He produced only the first six episodes, and for a time described these as comprising the complete story. The sequel trilogy concept was revived when the Walt Disney Company entered negotiations to acquire Lucasfilm in 2011. Lucas produced new story treatments, but these were largely discarded. Both the acquisition and plans to produce the trilogy were announced in late 2012.
A movie ranch is a ranch that is at least partially dedicated for use as a set in the creation and production of motion pictures and television shows. These were developed in the United States in southern California, because of the climate.
Golden Oak Ranch is an 890-acre (360-hectare) movie ranch owned by the Walt Disney Studios subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company that serves as a filming location and backlot. The ranch is off of Placerita Canyon Road outside of Newhall, Santa Clarita, California, less than an hour north of Los Angeles; its entrance is not far from Placerita Canyon Road's intersection with California State Route 14.
4S Ranch is an unincorporated, master-planned community in the North County area of San Diego County, California. It is located about 25 miles (40 km) north of downtown San Diego and 13 miles (21 km) east of the Pacific Ocean, just outside the incorporated city limits of San Diego.
Juan Bautista Rogers Cooper was a 19th-century pioneer of California, who held British, Mexican, and finally American citizenship. Raised in Massachusetts in a maritime family, he came to the Mexican territory of Alta California as master of the ship Rover, and was a pioneer of Monterey, California, when it was the capital of the territory. He converted to Catholicism, became a Mexican citizen, married the daughter of the Mexican territorial governor, and acquired extensive land holdings in the area prior to the Mexican–American War.
The Big Sur Land Trust is a private 501(c)(3) non-profit located in Monterey, California, that has played an instrumental role in preserving land in California's Big Sur and Central Coast regions. The trust was the first to conceive of and use the "conservation buyer" method in 1989 by partnering with government and developers to offer tax benefits as an inducement to sell land at below-market rates. Since 1978, with the support of donors, funders and partners, it has conserved over 40,000 acres through conservation easements, acquisition and transfer of land to state, county and city agencies. It has placed conservation easements on 7,000 acres and has retained ownership of over 4,000 acres.
Rhodes Ranch is a master-planned community and golf course located in Spring Valley, Nevada, approximately six miles southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. It was developed by Jim Rhodes. The community was announced in 1996, after Rhodes gained 1,330 acres (540 ha), some of it through the Bureau of Land Management. At the time, much of the surrounding area was rural, and nearby residents opposed the development of the land. Despite the opposition, the Rhodes Ranch project was approved and began construction.