George Lucas and PM Lee open the "Sandcrawler"

SINGAPORE - The force was strong in Singapore on Thursday as Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers await the arrival of important guests.

But it was not the Dark Lord or the Sith who arrived, but two much less sinister figures - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the creator of Star Wars himself, George Lucas.

The pair officially opened the Lucas Films' regional headquarters at Fusionopolis.

The eight-storey building was modeled after the iconic Sand Crawler vehicle used to house the entrepreneurial jawas in the Star Wars movie franchise.

The award-winning building now houses another bunch of visionaries, as it is the regional headquarters of Lucas Films Singapore, The Walt Disney Company and ESPN Asia-Pacific.

"Lucas Film at the Sand Crawler is part of a cluster of digital and media companies located at Fusionopolis," said Razor TV journalist Shawn Lee Miller.

"Speaking at the opening, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said it is important to invest in such clusters for a vibrant, creative eco-system where new sectors like digital animation can be developed."

There are currently 130 Singaporeans who are working at Lucas Film Singapore which opened here in 2005.

Together, they have worked on movies like The Avengers, Transformers and Pacific Rim, as well as the Emmy-winning Clone Wars.

"To me, it is really special because Star Wars, the project, which really kicked off my career here at Lucas Films", said Edward Zhou, a Lead Animator, "so it's like I've gone full circle and came back to something that really ties back together for me again - working in a building called the Sand Crawler."

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"When I first saw the Sand Crawler building, I thought it was really impressive, with all its glass and the shape of it which reminds us of the Sand Crawler, said Ying Han Long, a Junior Compositor.

"It also has a very nice garden. Whenever, we are actually lacking of some inspiration, we can walk by and look at the trees and building," she added.

"It means that Lucas Films will be here for a very time because we own the building and it's pretty cool that it is shaped like the Sand Crawler from the Star Wars series," said Adam Lee, a Senior Effects Technical Director,

The Sand Crawler includes 22,500 square metres of enclosed office and common space, and features a 100-seat theatre.

This was transcribed from a Razor Tv video.