LucasFilm, maker of the Star Wars movies, announced on May 13 that it would establish an animation unit--in Point Richmond. You may have missed that announcement; West County Times never ran it, though it did run in the Kansas City Star, Reuters, Ireland Online, The Age in Australia among others.

Staff in the Point numbers just 12 right now, far fewer than the 400 or 500 "Pixarians"--according to one staff member's estimate--when they all moved to Emeryville in 2000. But a LucasFilm spokesperson, Jeanne Cole, says her company expects to grow.

Pixarians thought that Lucas would fill their old space almost as soon as they moved out. One of them told me, "[Pixar people] graffitied the place for them."