George Lucas is best known to the world for being the man behind billion-dollar franchises like "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones," but since he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, his biggest dream has been to create a museum dedicated to film as a whole, a project that has met with a lot of bumps on the road, and the Lucas Museum in Chicago continues to face problems ahead of its construction.
Less than two weeks after the Windy City's Council approved the Lucas Museum in Chicago, construction has stopped in view of a lawsuit, after a judge didn't rule on the city's motion to dismiss a lawsuit from conservationist group Friends of the Parks, which is trying to keep the lakeside venue from being built.
According to The Chicago Tribune, while Lucas' project has been approved by the City Council as well as the city's Park District, the latter of which signed an agreement to lease 17 lakefront acres to the Lucas Museum in Chicago for the 300,000 square feet venue; however, the non-profit sees Lucas' involvement in the spot as difficult to trust.
"It has to be consistent with the public trust," said the attorney representing the Friends of the Parks' case, Tom Geoghegan, to the press about the Lucas Museum in Chicago, Progress Illinois reports. "Just because they are arguing it is going to be for a public purpose doesn't give them a blank check to dispose of Park District land in any way they like."
As Kqed reports, the fact that the Lucas Museum's in Chicago at all has been considered a coup for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, as the venue, which will include many memorabilia items as well as several internal movie theaters, was originally set to be built in Lucas' native San Francisco Bay Area, but it was never approved.
The next court date to settle the matter of the Lucas Museum in Chicago was set at February 4.
