And the director speculation for Star Wars: Episode VII marches on.  If you thought actor Jason Fleymng’s recent bean-spilling statement regarding Matthew Vaughn as the director of the new Star Wars film would put an end to the rumors and murmurs, think again.  We’ve seen a number of names pop up as being in contention for the task of helming the upcoming untitled Return of the Jedi sequel, and it seems like we’ve seen just as many filmmakers come out and publicly turn the job down.  One such name that has previously spoken publicly about the new trilogy is Jon Favreau, and it appears that he and David Fincher are the latest filmmakers to be added to the growing “contender” list.  Hit the jump for more. Just recently, actor Jason Flemyng seemingly confirmed that close collaborator Matthew Vaughn is in negotiations to direct Star Wars 7.  Buried in blog post on Deadline about people getting into hot water over comments that are published on the interwebs, Mike Fleming threw two more names into the hat in addition to Vaughn:

“As much as I’ve heard the Vaughn rumor, I’ve also heard Jon Favreau is panting after this job, and even that David Fincher, who apparently worked for Lucas’s ILM in a menial job as a teen, might be game for one of these new films.  Unfortunately, we are getting nothing out of Lucas Land on what they call speculation. I broke a story recently that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg will write future Star Wars installments, most likely the second and third installments of the new trilogy, I’d heard. Lucas, through Disney, denied every speck of this, but I ran it anyway. They won’t comment or clarify these things because they want to announce it themselves on their own Twitter or website or whatever they’ve got.”

Favreau’s name has bandied about as a Star Wars 7 contender for a while, and it makes sense that he’d be gunning for the job.  It’s no secret that the Iron Man director is a huge Star Wars fan (read his thoughts on the new trilogy here), and shortly after the announcement of Star Wars: Episode VII was made, he changed his Twitter avatar to a picture of R2D2.  He has subsequently made a few not-so-subtle Star Wars mentions on Twitter, and his next directorial project—an adaptation of the musical Jersey Boys—was recently put into turnaround.

As for Fincher, he actually has a history with the franchise.  In his early days, the Fight Club director worked at Industrial Light & Magic and contributed to the effects for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.  He also has a pre-existing relationship with new LucasFilm head Kathleen Kennedy, as she produced 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  In face, in a recent video interview Kennedy said that they were looking at people they have worked with before for the Episode VII job.  Fincher has yet to choose his next directorial project, but he's working with Disney on a greenlight to his 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea remake at the moment and he's courting Brad Pitt to star.  Both Favreau and Fincher seem like plausible candidates for the gig, so I have no trouble believing that they’re on Kennedy’s radar.

As Fleming noted, Disney and LucasFilm aren’t saying a word, so it appears that all this speculation will have to continue until the studios actually make the announcement regarding who’s directing Episode 7.  What we do know is that Michael Arndt is currently busy writing the screenplay based on treatments and notes from George Lucas, and Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg have signed on to write either Episode VIII and IX or spinoff films that will involve characters from the upcoming sequel.  Hopefully the official announcement is made soon, then we can move on to the sure-to-be-endless casting rumors.