Italian architect Renzo Piano had just one request before allowing a sneak peek of the long-awaited Academy Museum of Motion Pictures last week.
"I have one favor to ask you," Piano, 84, pleaded with a smile from the state-of-the-art theater housed in the new movie museum's colossal Sphere Building. "Please don’t call this the Death Star.
The Pritzker Prize-winning architect appealed to think of the 26 million-pound concrete and glass structure as a "very well built" soap bubble that will never pop, or: "Even better, call it a flying vessel ready to land or take off.
It's unlikely that Piano will squash the nickname that has immediately stuck to the instant Los Angeles architectural icon. But there's no denying his belief that the Academy Museum will blast visitors to new worlds with its official opening Thursday, giving a long-overdue and spectacular movie home for the industry town - the film capital that put the Hollywood in Hollywood.
Some of that goes to movie magic, from a magical animation-themed Hayao Miyazaki exhibit to 19th century French magic lanterns on display. After Hanksglimpsed at moviemaking artifacts from the 1800s in the museum's "Paths to the Cinema" section, he, too, pushed back against the Death Star nickname.
It’s feels good to have such a structure, because it’s enhances learning.
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