Singapore’s media industry is set to shoot for the stars, now that a slice of Hollywood has landed here.

Lucasfilm Animation officially opened for business at Changi Business Park this month, and work has started on a 26-part animated TV series based on the Star Wars films.

The 3-D animation is an expansion of the TV cartoon series Clone Wars, produced by America's Cartoon Network Studios and first aired in the United States in 2003.

The made-in-Singapore project is expected to be released worldwide in the second half of 2007.

Such products are just what the Economic Development Board is looking for to get a bigger piece of the global digital animation market, worth at least $120 billion this year.

The studio was created through a consortium of investors that includes Lucasfilm, EDB Investments and Creative Technology. Lucasfilm owns about 75 per cent of it.

The presence of an iconic filmmaker such as George Lucas, who is behind the Indiana Jones and Star Wars movie franchises and their animated series, would be a magnet for foreign talent.

Lucasfilm Animation Singapore, the company's first studio outside the US, employs 35 people from 19 countries, including Singapore, the US, Australia and Myanmar. This is expected to grow to 50 by year-end and to about 100 in a few years. The studio in The Signature building can hold up to 300 employees.

Officiating at its opening, Second Minister for Trade and Industry Vivian Balakrishnan described the venture as 'an extremely important development'. 'George Lucas is a legend. The fact that he and his team have chosen Singapore as a second home, in particular to work on a television series... will act as a honey pot and will attract people from all over the world to Singapore.'

Lucasfilm Animation's vice-president and general manager, Ms Gail Currey, hinted that part of the plot would be based on the Star Wars comic book adventures published by America's Dark Horse.