Skywalker Ranch - Theme Park.

[Moonliner]

Does anyone have access to land purchase records around Marin County CA?

This one strikes me as a bit unreliable, but a friend of mine (a serious star wars geek) says that Mr. Lucas has been purchasing a large block of land somewhere "north of Marin County" in order to build a Skywalker Ranch Theme Park. Now the geek in me is saying, you go George, but the rest of me is saying, yea pull the other one...

Has anyone else heard anything about this? Perhaps it's just space for a new studio or some such.

I did some Google searches to see if anything showed up. I only found one site that talks about Lucas and theme parks, it says:

Lucas urged Marini to get a degree in Business Management. He did, at SF State. He worked directly with Lucas, first on the personal side and then over to Lucasfilm Ltd., where his titles included General Manager of LFL's Design and Construction Division and later Executive In Charge of Special Projects. One of those projects was Skywalker Development from which sprung the idea of location-based entertainment-- theme parks, theme malls, theme restaurants, etc. Lucas let the ball drop with Skywalker when he got involved with Disney, thinking it best not to be a competitor.

But now that Disney and Lucas seem to be at an impasse, perhaps he wants to be a competitor. Here's hoping!

[Mousey Girl]

Wow!!

[DisneyFan25863]

I would rather have him in a relationship with Disney...I don't think he has the resources to pull off something like Indy on his own...

[DISNEYJUNKIE]

I think he may have the resources and his light magic crew. In the Marin Co area there is a Lucas Valley exit off 101 that I belive takes you to skywalker ranch which houses his studio, rumor has it the he has purchased a good chunk of the SF persidio property to move his studios there.So uhm there would be possiblities at the old location in Marin for a Skywalker theme park...think of the possiblities.

[mamabot]

Oooooh seems like some fact checking is in order. I may have a source that can provide some insight. I will have to check with him to see if he has heard anything about this.

[Tigertail777]

This would be awesome if true. I am not a HUGE star wars geek, but I would love to visit his universe. Plus it would make Disney HAVE to be more competitive regarding Disneyland and adding new attractions more often, as well as better upkeep.

[Barbossa]

Just pray that he doesn't have a Howard the Duck land as part of his theme park!

[PirateMunkee]

I think he may have the resources and his light magic crew. In the Marin Co area there is a Lucas Valley exit off 101 that I belive takes you to skywalker ranch which houses his studio, rumor has it the he has purchased a good chunk of the SF persidio property to move his studios there.So uhm there would be possiblities at the old location in Marin for a Skywalker theme park...think of the possiblities.

They are supposed to start an art and film making school there as well

[DznyVan]

I remember watching them film "Howard the Duck" when they were in the Delta filming it. That was the ONLY reason that I saw it in the theatre. I wanted to see how the Delta scenes came out.

I think that my kids might have seen it on TV once. I don't think that they were impressed. :confused:

[Tinkerbelle]

I think he may have the resources and his light magic crew. In the Marin Co area there is a Lucas Valley exit off 101 that I belive takes you to skywalker ranch which houses his studio, rumor has it the he has purchased a good chunk of the SF persidio property to move his studios there.So uhm there would be possiblities at the old location in Marin for a Skywalker theme park...think of the possiblities.

IMHO not going to happen...
skywalker Ranch houses his studio (and home I think) no public access to my knowledge. as far as a theme park in Marin...It would never get the go ahead Marin is too snoby ( I live here I can say that...) Marin wont even widen the freeway or add a train transit, or expand BART because "they' don't want everyone here... a theme park would require too many permits that wont be passed...

again this is just my opinion, but I'd say a big fat N-O

[Gemini Cricket]

Willow - The Ride.
:botox:

[dsnylndmom]

STALK


Hey GC nice to have ya back :devil:

and I have to agree with Tinkerbelle, I just can't see that happening, I have family there, she's right too snobby. But defintely interesting!! Thx Moonliner!

[RabidAlienz]

Absolutley no way!!

George Lucas is a very private person. I worked at SkyWalker Ranch and it is one of the best memories I have because I am a Star Wars/ George Lucas fan. The ranch is nestled in Lucas Valley, near San Rafael, Ca. and it is there because it is private. You could never find the ranch if you didn't know where to look. Even if he bought the land the other people in the area have money and pull as well. It would NEVER get approved zoning!! Marin County very much likes their open lands. But the biggest reason of all is that he is building a new Lucas Complex in the Presido in San Francisco. This will house THX, Lucas Arts, Lucas Learning, etc. except Skywalkwer Sound which is on the Ranch itself. This is extremely expensive and time consuming and with Star Wars III due out when do you tink he has time to mess around on a theme park idea? :lol:

[Cousin Orville]

I've heard that in SF site he does want to add some entertainment features. There have been feelers to the mall types and so forth. Zoning would not be an issue for some DisneyQuest LBE type thing.

[jorek]

I think he may have the resources and his light magic crew. In the Marin Co area there is a Lucas Valley exit off 101 that I belive takes you to skywalker ranch which houses his studio, rumor has it the he has purchased a good chunk of the SF persidio property to move his studios there.So uhm there would be possiblities at the old location in Marin for a Skywalker theme park...think of the possiblities.

Really unlikely. Lucas Valley Road isn't named after George - it's just a coincidence. There was once a ranching family coincidentally also named Lucas who owned much of the land there. Maybe that's why George moved in later, because he liked the name, but it's not named after him... Lucas Valley Road is the opposite of a major throughofare. It's a 2 lane (as in one lane each direction) extremely twisty road built onto the side of a mountain (as in, one side of the road is essentially bordering on a short cliff into a stream), and you have to drive on it for about 15 minutes starting from the freeway offramp before you're on Lucas's property. So using his existing property for a theme park is, I think, out of the question.

Lucas has bought more land in Marin in the last few years, but it's for some second ranch complex he's building, just a little ways up Lucas Valley Road from the existing one. No clue what it's for.

That said, if Lucas was involved in some mass landgrab just north of Marin for the purposes of building a theme park, someone would have figured it out by now and I think it would be all over the news (or at least on the Marin or San Francisco local news, in which case we probably would have heard about it on Fark or something).

So, while a fun rumor, unlikely to the max.

I would like a Grim Fandango theme park ride, however.

[kayoss]

No way. In fact, Marin being soooooooo retarted about NOT letting Lucas expand into his own property was the reason he pulled ILM out of Marin and moved it to San Francisco. Liberal is one thing, but Marin is so nuts it took my hadicapped friend ONE YEAR to clear the 'zoning permits' and 'red tape' to add a wheelchair ramp to HER OWN HOUSE. It's exactly this 'environmental stupidity' that led Lucas to jump ship on Marin and build out in SF. While pretty, Marin is full of morons (I grew up there....) and Sofia even joked about it in Lost In Translation. (Remember the lounge band named "Sausalito"? It's referring to the little Marin town where tons of those bands exist... )