George Lucas announced that he would be donating most of the $4 billion he got from selling Lucasfilms to Disney for the advancement of education.
Lucas is estimated to be worth $7.8 billion without the $4.05 billion he received from selling Lucasfilms Pvt. Ltd to Disney. The film producer reveals he made this deal so that the life of films could be longer.
"Disney is a huge corporation," he said in a statement. "They have all kinds of capabilities and facilities, so that there's a lot of strength that is gained by this. I'm doing this so that the films will have a longer life, and so that more fans and people can enjoy them in the future. It's a very big universe I've created and there are a lot of stories that are sitting in there."
Lucas has decided to donate most of his wealth to a charitable organization for the advancement of education.
"I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race," Lucas said. "We have to plan for our collective future-and the first step begins with social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt-as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so."
In an interview that was published on YouTube, Lucas revealed that though he would not be working any more on the very famous "Star Wars", he finds no reason why Kathleen Kennedy should not carry on the good work.
"I always said I wasn't going to do any more, and that's true, I'm not going to do any more," said Lucas, who will not write or direct the upcoming films, but whose iconic imprint will be all over them. "But that doesn't mean I'm unwilling to turn it over to Kathy [Kennedy] to do more. I have story treatments of 7, 8 and 9 and a bunch of other movies, and obviously, we have hundreds of books and comics and everything you could possibly imagine. So I sort of moved that treasure trove of stories and various things to Kathy, and I have complete confidence that she's gonna take them and make great movies."
The American film producer also said that he's been thinking of retirement for some time and thinks it's the right time to announce his retirement now.