REPORT: 'Looper' Director to Helm 'Star Wars: Episode VIII'

Looper director Rian Johnson is in talks to take the baton from J.J. Abrams for the next installment of Star Wars, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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The news source reports that Johnson will direct Star Wars: Episode VIII, as his fourth feature film.

J.J. Abrams is currently shooting Star Wars: Episode VII, starring Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o and Max von Sydow.

Johnson made his directorial debut in 2005 with the crime drama Brick, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the Sundance Film Festival that year.

Josh Trank (Chronicle) and Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) have reportedly been in talks to direct their own stand-alone Star Wars films.