Nothing hurts the credibility of the film blogosphere like bad rumors. Not even supercilious comments from Armond White or Peter Bart (before he gave in and started blogging himself) have cut so deep as the embarrassment of believing word about an E.T. sequel, Daniel Radcliffe being cast as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit or Megan Fox signing on to play Wonder Woman.

In the past 24 hours the film blogosphere experienced what I believe to be the worst movie rumor of all time: a “supported” claim by MarketSaw that George Lucas is planning a new Star Wars trilogy that would be shot in digital 3-D and directed by such prestigious filmmakers as Lucas buds Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. Fortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of people fooled and the rumor was debunked right away, but it still made me slap my forehead to see so many sites running the story, even if to comment on how unlikely it sounded or to relay its lack of truth.

Of course, by featuring the topic for this Bloggery post, I’m contributing to the unfortunate attention the rumor is receiving. But with a week left before SpoutBlog discontinues original content, I figure it’s more important than ever to focus on what’s wrong with the movie blogs, so others are able to fluorish.

To add my own two cents to the concept behind the rumor, though, I’d just like to say that nobody should ever be excited about the idea of either Spielberg or Coppola helming a Star Wars movie. We’re already aware that the former can make a terrible flick out of Lucas’ writing, and you must realize that Coppola’s installment would be more Captain EO (a 3-D movie co-written by Lucas) than The Godfather. Or, worse, like Jack in outer space.

Check out the other film blogs’ coverage of and response to this ridiculous hoax after the jump:

• Jim Dorey at MarketSaw recognizes the need to address the validity of this rumor in his original firestarter:
  

  How seriously should you consider these rumors? Well it is coming from a source that SHOULD KNOW. This source is absolutely connected. So odds are it is seriously being talked about at Lucasfilm. Right now. Will it happen? AVATAR will have to hit and hit big and then all the stars have to align properly - all I can do is pass on the info.

• Kevin Coll at Fused Film is all kinds of excited about the “news”:
  

  This is wild but not far from out of the ordinary. Lucas is smart and knows loyal fans were less than happy with the prequel trilogies and its over-hyped, over marketed crap-fest. With the emergence of 3D he understands the how he bring his most prized possession into a whole new medium of visual candy. Star Wars has always been part of the cutting edge of film making so why wouldn’t continue to be? I also wonder if this will be the trilogy that will bring back the original cast (Hamil, Ford, Fisher) as a sequel trilogy set 20 or so years after the Return of the Jedi would be interesting to see.

• Devin Faraci at CHUD.com likes the reasoning but doesn’t believe it one bit:
  

  I do like Jim’s theory as to why Lucas would be doing a new Star Wars trilogy: I could see Lucas getting a little jealous over a successful launch of AVATAR - jealous because it is a fully articulated universe, like his. And if he doesn’t act on it - his franchise may well be relegated to a back seat as potentially the records will start falling to Pandora.

  Do I believe that Lucas is planning a new trilogy of films? I think it’s going to take all of my wordsmithery to get the nuance of this across:

  No.

• Erik Davis at SciFi Squad doesn’t buy it for a second:
  

  he’d pass them off to other directors like Steven Spielberg or Francis Ford Coppola (who Market Saw claims their source mentioned directly as a potential candidate). Yeah, definitely let me know when Coppola decides to direct a Star Wars film so I can look out my window and watch all the pigs flying.

• Meredith Woerner at io9 is suspicious of the real purpose of this rumor:
  

  This wouldn’t at all be about promoting Avatar, would it? I can see the PR meeting now, “I know let’s tell the space nerds if they watch Avatar they’ll get more Star Warszes, that’ll get ‘em in the theaters!” Sounds like somebody is whispering nonsense to drum up Avatar excitement, and you know how these things carry like a game of telephone.

• Quint at Ain’t It Cool News confirms the rumor is untrue via a correspondence with a rep from Lucasfilm and offers added reasoning to it’s unliklihood:
  

  Now, I will say that Lucasfilm would be the last place to confirm a rumor as true… even if it is (they did that a lot back in the day… I remember them denying Ewan McGregor was cast as Obi-Wan for the entire month leading up to their announcement), but this story already stinks of untruth (especially with Coppola’s name being thrown in there… read this), so I think it’s pretty safe to call BS on this one… especially with Lucas so engulfed in the live action TV show at the moment.

• Oli Lyttelton at The Playlist makes me sad that we’ve come to this: congratulating Ain’t It Cool News for being the credibility beacon in a bloggery bullshitstorm:
  

  in news slightly less surprising than the sun rising this morning, it’s been denied by a Lucasfilm representative. Kudos to Ain’t It Cool for doing what MarketSaw should have done in the first place. You know, proper journalism.

• Vince Mancini at FilmDrunk addresses the rumormill format, always a sign of fail:
  

  Question marks in the headline can mean only one thing: it’s time to prognosticate!  This story has no facts, so we’re free to speculate wildly!  Yee haw, now who wants to take a shot in the dark?  And remember, address all responses in the form of a question!
  

• Rodney at The Movie Blog acknowledges that it’s harder to tell when a rumor this big is spread on any other day but April 1:
  

  I nearly had a stroke as my inner geek (which looks a lot like my outer geek) heard that Lucasfilm was planning on remastering the Star Wars films in 3D, and that a new Trilogy was planned.

  After I regained consciousness and changed my shorts I realized this had to be too good to be true. Well it seems that it was total bullshit and far more cruel than my April Fools gag because as soon as people saw the date, they knew it was a trick.

• Orlando Parfitt at IGN feels the need to relay even a debunked rumor because it’s such an important franchise:
  

  Just as IGN was getting cautiously excited, however, we saw that AintItCool had quizzed Lucasfilm’s PR department about the news. The studio had promptly nixed the gossip, telling the site: “We do not have any Star Wars theatrical movies planned.”

  So there’s a 99 percent chance that said rumours were Internet-invented nonsense, but as it’s Star Wars we thought we should let you know the latest.

• Matt Goldberg at Collider didn’t think the franchise was still so important as to cause so much embarrassment:
  

  I didn’t think that people really cared about “Star Wars” anymore but apparently a big enough rumor regarding new “Star Wars” movies can send people into a frenzy for all of 30 seconds before they stop and say, “That makes no fucking sense.”  But such is the way of the Internet and its just good that movie websites have developed relationships with people who can swat down these ridiculous rumors before you can send out the link to everyone you know and make yourself look like a total idiot.

• Dustin Rowles at Pajiba doesn’t even want to talk about the rumor:
  

  I can’t imagine there are that many folks interested in a big-screen rock musical directed by Hairspray’s Adam Shankman. But, it’s either this or the bullshit rumor that there’s another Star Wars trilogy in the works.

• Kofi Outlaw at ScreenRant isn’t ready to give up on this rumor just yet:
  

  Collider and Ain’t It Cool are shooting this one down as a wild rumor prematurely reported by Market Saw. I’m a bit fairer, so I’ll keep in open mind that anything can happen in the world of movies, but I would NOT get your hopes up for a new Star Wars trilogy coming anytime soon.

• Dave Davis at JoBlo.com won’t completely kill the rumor yet, either:
  

  those party poopertroopers over at AICN went straight to Lucasfilm for verification, and received an official denial from the PR droid on duty. Which, of course, is both expected and meaningless, since if there’s any truth to the rumor, they’re surely not going to announce anything until they’re ready. And at a place like Comic Con.

  So for now, perhaps we should encase this rumor in carbonite

• Ben Child at the Guardian Film Blog also still believes it’s possible, because “Ultimately, [Lucas] has a business to run, employees to pay, and Star Wars is by far his greatest asset.” But he disagrees with the idea of old friends directing the new films:
  

  if Star Wars must come back now, it’s vital that younger directors with fresh ideas be appointed. Though no spring chicken these days, I’d pay good money to see a Peter Jackson-directed trilogy. Ditto one by Abrams, or even Joss Whedon, who did a great job on the similarly themed Serenity. The Dark Knight’s Christopher Nolan is interested in science fiction – his forthcoming film Inception is set to venture into the genre, and he knows how to craft a series that’s classy and meaningful, without losing the blockbuster clout.

• Josh Tyler at Cinema Blend doesn’t believe the rumor, but just in case it is true, he also wants to chime in on the directorial choices:
  

  Personally I hope he avoids Spielberg, Coppola, or any of his old school director friends and brings in someone with even more different, fresh ideas. Otherwise, why bother? We don’t need the Star Wars equivalent of Kingdom and the Crystal Skull. Keep Spielberg away from the land of a galaxy far, far away.

• Adam Rosenberg at MTV Movies Blog does some rounding up of his own on the rumor progression and now believes MarketSaw is simply one of those untrustworthy blogs:
  

  In short, a “Star Wars” junkie’s happiest dream. All from a “trusted source.” It’s hard to swallow though, especially given MarketSaw’s rumormill track record.