Until Proven Otherwise: Michael Arndt Likely Penning Star Wars Episode VII

Disney was so quiet keeping the Lucasfilm acquisition under wraps. That "For Few Eyes Only" status applied to assigning writers for their planned Star Wars sequel trilogy too.

Vulture originated the info so they win linkage. Michael Arndt (Strong ties to the Mouse, penning Toy Story 3 and Pete Docter's Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside the Mind) is the favorite. The Force is strong enough with the Oscar-winning scribe he's reportedly penned treatments for the new trilogy and assigned full-on scripting duties on Star Wars: Episode VII. If "TOLDJA" is to be believed on the latter.

The studio is keen for the return of principle leads Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. Their terminology ("high ambitions to sign up Mark Hamill") suggests Luke Skywalker is the priority. Han Solo and Princess Leia, we’d love to have you back, but if push comes to shove, we're going with the Jedi-in-training protagonist of the original trilogy.

There's also stuff about how Arndt's treatment is "crossing the desks" of J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird and Steven Spielberg. Nope (Exclusive to Paramount and already doing his own "A Long Time Ago..." thing on Star Trek), maybe and Hell no (Lots of reasons but we’ll go with “Too expensive”). Zack Snyder also told the LA Times he's not interested... but then again he wasn't interested in Superman either.