With George Lucas' net worth of $5.1B and ranking number 309 in The World's Billionaires list, as reported by Forbes.com, we will not be surprised of his next plan. The "Star Wars" creator is planning to build "houses for regular working people" in California, reports CBS San Francisco.
Gary Giacomini, Lucas' attorney was able to talk to the outlet about the filmaker's intention. He explained that according to the famed director, "We've got enough millionaires here. What we need is some houses for regular working people."
For this project, the outlet notes that the Lucasfilm founder is giving his own Marin County estate and envisions a community of 224 homes to be built using his own money. This is to rise at his California ranch, exactly the same spot where the neighborhood rejected his proposal for a Lucasfilm studio expansion, says NY Daily News.
NY Daily News notes that Lucasfilm just dropped the plan of having a "state-of-the-art studio in 2012" after getting exhausted with his neighbors complaining it will disrupt peace within the area due to higher traffic and too much noise.
"We love working and living in Marin, but the residents of Lucas Valley have fought this project for 25 years, and enough is enough. We have several opportunities to build the production stages in communities that see us as a creative asset, not as an evil empire, " Lucasfilm said in 2012, as quoted by NY Daily News.
So with this new plan Lucas has, is this his way of striking back?
Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey beamed with the coming project but also felt other people will see it as a "payback" for the rejected proposal. "One could take it that way, and I'm sure that some neighbors will, but for the rest of us in Marin County, we just see it as a continuing contribution from George Lucas to the quality of our life," Kinsey told CBS San Francisco, adding, "George Lucas said, 'if I'm not going to do what I wanted to do there, what can I do that would be really beneficial to this community?'" Kinsey said.
This is not an unusual act of kindness for Lucas who started as a "regular" person himself. He was a self-made billionaire who came from a modest background, Forbes notes. Lucas reportedly started as Francis Ford Coppola' production assistant before he created his own company and made it big. In 2012, he decided to sell his company to Disney for $4B, adds Forbes, but even before that, he formed a Giving Pledge foundation in 2010 as part of his generous contribution to society.
Although he has retired from filmmaking, he stil has creative projects in mind, aside from the Marin County housing. In 2018, he is set to open a Museum of Narrative Art in Chicago, says Forbes.
