BEVERLY HILLS, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences managing director of development, Bill Kramer, announced on May 29, that director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men:The Last Stand), has given a $1 million gift to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The Academy launched the Museum’s capital campaign in 2012 and has already secured more than half of the campaign’s $300 million goal in commitments. The campaign is chaired by Bob Igler and co-chaired by Annette Bening, and Tom Hanks.

Said Igler:

Thanks to the generosity of founding supporters like Brett, we are now able to realize the long-held dream of the Academy and that of the global film community to build a museum dedicated to the history and future of the movies

Designed by architects Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali to represent the marriage of art and technology, the Academy Museum (concept art above) will be located next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the historic Wilshire May Company building. It will contain nearly 300,000 square feet of state-of-the-art galleries, exhibition spaces, theaters, screening rooms, education centers, and special event spaces.

Said Brett Ratner:

I feel blessed to be part of such a magnificent museum. I was blown away by the the recent Kubrick exhibit at LACMA, which the Academy co-sponsored. I couldn’t be more excited that our Academy will finally have its own museum that will preserve and exhibit cinema’s greatest work.

The museum is slated to open in 2017.