tumblr_m43knr7SFl1r3kvzio1_1280UPDATE: Snyder has said (via THR), “he is super flattered because he is a huge fan, Zack is not involved in any way with the new Star Wars. He is currently in post on his two films, Man of Steel and 300: Battle of Artemisia.” So perhaps Snyder is out of this one, but I’m 100% confident this news is based on something. Whether the director is wrong but the idea is spot-on or not everybody is ready to acknowledge such a project, something’s up…

Apparently Disney and Lucasfilm’s plans for extending the Star Wars universe are more expansive than orginally thought…

Word comes from Vulture that the start of a new trilogy of canon Star Wars films is not the only thing they’re developing, as a sort of parallel side film is also in the works- and Zach Snyder is behind it.

Said to essentially be a new remake of Seven Samurai featuring Jedi in the place of traditional Japanese warriors, the film will fit likely fit somewhere between Episodes VII and VIII.

There are a lot of reasons this makes sense, not least of which being that Seven Samurai is well known as one of Lucas’ favorite films. In fact, Lucas’ devotion to Kurosawa is so deep that much of A New Hope riffs very heavily on The Hidden Fortress, and was originally sketched out as something very near a remake of it.

In any event, Snyder’s would join films like The Magnificent Seven and even A Bug’s Life that remake Seven Samurai in one form or another. It’s a simple, classic story of a town hiring the help of seven wayward warriors to help the defend against a gang and their routine shakedown of the residents.

Frankly, I’m interested in Zach Snyder and other directors playing in the Star Wars universe, and I’m VERY interested in the the studio opening up the franchise for side-films. In fact, the idea of great filmmakers having the opportunity to tell their own Star Wars tale without being chained to the central narrative suddenly makes Lucas’ universe that much more vital and creatively sustainable in my eyes.

There is a big conversation to have here- your thoughts on this HUGE news?