Lucas receives AFI life-achievement award

George Lucas figures this is the ideal time to receive the American Film Institute's life-achievement award, now that he's getting out of the Star Wars business and embarking on a second career as an avant-garde film-maker. One of Hollywood's highest honours, the award came as Lucas was bidding goodbye to his six-film sci-fi epic about the Skywalker clan, with the final chapter cruising to a US$400 million-plus ($568.02 million) domestic haul.

The Institute actually approached him a decade ago about the career prize, said Lucas, who turned 61 days before last month's debut of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. But he had said at the time that he was "too young".