A Visit to Skywalker Ranch

Magnificent and beautiful. A comprehensive site.

http://www.insideskywalkerranch.com/skywalker-ranch-tour.htm

An unpretentious entrance.

http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/CA3191/

Wikipedia on both Skywalker Ranch and Big Rock Ranch next door.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywalker_Ranch

 

That looks like an awesome place to work. Lucas and his employees are lucky people. A completely different environment and atmosphere than Hollywood down in Los Angeles. It's sort of a Shangri-La retreat for filmmakers.

 

Nice!

Indeed, that looks like a very cool place to work *looks at her stupid cubicle and cries*

 

I'm making a point here, so bear with me.

To my amazement, in recently studying the life of Alfred Hitchcock, I found out that in the 1940s, not too long after he moved to America, he bought a 600 acre ranch called Cornwall near Santa Cruz, California as an escape from Los Angeles. He grew grapes and raised horses there and reportedly did a great deal of his creative work at this ranch, meditating in serene surroundings. He and his wife had the ranch for 32 years and frequently brought famous guests there, including Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly and Cary Grant.

I've always thought of Hitchcock as an "L.A." guy, so this information floored me.

Hitchcock reportedly received inspiration for the movie THE BIRDS based on a local incident near the town, and used nearby architecture as inspiration for the houses and hotel in Psycho. He also made one movie, Vertigo, primarily in nearby San Francisco.

I was surprised to find that Hitchcock had a northern California connection. I can't think of two filmmakers more different than Hitchcock and Lucas, yet there is a connection, they both had large ranches in Northern California which functioned as filmmaker's retreats.

And Coppola's been based there his whole career and has property in Sonoma County.

http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Features/0,1197,3217,00.html

Saul Zaentz, a major producer of Hollywood movies, has been based there his whole career, in Berkeley.

What is it about northern California that holds such allure, and attracts Hollywood types to migrate there?

I think Skywalker Ranch is the ultimate example of this.

 

Supershadow did this ages ago

 

It's not listed in the thread index. I checked before I posted the thread.