We're not utterly convinced by this one, but we wouldn't be doing our duty if we didn't at least pass on that it's even been mentioned. It is Star Wars, after all.

According to MarketSaw, LucasFilm is believed to be considering producing a brand new trilogy of Star Wars movies. This goes against what George Lucas has said in the past (he's nixed talk of episodes 7 to 9 in the past), but nonetheless, the story suggests that three new movies, each in stereoscopic 3D, could be on the agenda.

Furthermore, these three movies would not, the site reports, be directed by George Lucas, and instead the reins may end up being handed over to some of Lucas' closest directing colleagues, with Steven Spielberg's name explicitly mentioned. So was Francis Ford Coppola's, though, but we can't help thinking that there's as much chance of him directing a Star Wars film as there is George Lucas getting the nod for The Godfather Part IV.

The fate of the trilogy apparently rests upon the performance of James Cameron's Avatar this Christmas. We can imagine that many projects' fate hinges on just how well Avatar performs - and don't forget that there's a new trailer out for it in US cinemas tomorrow - but is a third Star Wars trilogy really one of them?

Here's that MarketSaw story.

UPDATE: As suspected, it's not taken very long for LucasFilm to deny the story. Over at AintItCoolNews, they posed the question to LucasFilm's PR department, and got the fairly straight response, "We do not have any Star Wars theatrical movies planned."

Granted, LucasFilm isn't the most forthcoming much of the time with admitting rumours that later turn out to be true, but our gut feeling says it's telling the truth here.

AintItCool