STAR WARS animated theatrical release, really?

There's reports today around the web claiming that George Lucas is planning on bringing the new STAR WARS animated series to the big screen and although no official decision seems to have been made by LucasFilm at this time, something sure does seem to be brewing.

By Matt Holmes /

There's reports today around the web claiming that George Lucas is planning on bringing the new STAR WARS animated series to the big screen and although no official decision seems to have been made by LucasFilm at this time, something sure does seem to be brewing. And after all it's not really that hard to believe is it? It's been nearly three years since his last money-making venture in the franchise and although INDY IV should keep him ticking over for a while, he just can't give up the ghost on that galaxy far, far away.

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The first origin of today's story appears to be this U.K. action figure site which claims that the first three episodes of Lucas' upcoming CLONE WARS series will be distributed theatrically in the U.K. around September time, in what will be promoted as a 90 minute film. AICN picked up the story initially and then later in the day received an e-mail stating that the plan for the series is to actually release a film containing four episodes in the U.S. around the time of INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL'S release. Which is ridiculously bizarre. Lucas would NEVER have two films of his in competition against each other. His two biggest franchises going one on one... don't think so. TheForce.Net got in touch with LucasFilm to try and get a confirmation on this and the following is the reply they received...
"I'd like to clarify Hasbro comments this AM about the Clone Wars TV series. We see it as a breakthrough animated television series and are exploring a number of innovative ways to introduce it to the public. No decisions regarding release strategy have been made yet."
Interesting. Not a denial by any means, simply an avoidance. TheForce asked about a theatrical release strategy and got this response...
"It's one of the many things being discussed but we have no decisions yet. For us it's all about finding a creative way to launch a creative TV series."
Oh yeah, something is definitely in the works right here. CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE AT THEFORCE.NET.