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"Star Wars creator George Lucas has revealed that Chicago will become the setting for his upcoming museum of art and movie memorabilia.  Chicago fended off competition from San Francisco and Los Angeles to become the home of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.   Lucas, who hopes the new project will open in 2018, said: &amp;quot;I am humbled to be joining such an extraordinary museum community and to be creating the museum in a city that has a long tradition of embracing the arts.&amp;quot; It was recently announced that Josh Trank will direct a Star Wars spinoff movie.  The Chronicle director, like Godzilla&amp;#039;s Gareth Edwards, will develop a stand-alone movie separate from the Disney/Lucasfilm &amp;#039;Episodes&amp;#039;. Meanwhile, Rian Johnson was recently named as the writer and director of Star Wars Episode VIII. JJ Abrams&amp;#039;s Star Wars Episode VII - starring original cast members Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker - will be released on December 18, 2015. Andy Serkis, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Gwendoline Christie and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong&amp;#039;o will make their Star Wars series debut in Episode VII. Watch JJ Abrams&amp;#039; video message from the set of Star Wars: Episode VII below:  Star Wars Episode VII - Meet the cast:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/star-wars/news/a580169/george-lucas-chooses-chicago-as-the-home-of-new-star-wars-museum/>