It’s time for your daily dose of Star Wars: Episode VII rumblings.  With the official confirmation that Toy Story 3 scribe Michael Arndt will be handling script duties on the Return of the Jedi sequel, all eyes are now on which filmmaker LucasFilm will choose to direct the highly anticipated follow-up.  Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and Zack Snyder have all taken themselves out of the running (though they were all unlikely candidates to begin with), and we recently heard from J.J. Abrams, Jon Favreau, Guillermo del Toro, and Colin Tervorrow about the prospect of helming the follow-up.Now producer Frank Marshall, husband of new LucasFilm President/Star Wars overseer Kathleen Kennedy, has spoken briefly about the project, revealing that the director search is now down to “a couple of candiates.”  Moreover, Captain America director Joe Johnston has also chimed in with his thoughts on possibly taking over the franchise.  Hit the jump for much more.Speaking with MTV News, Marshall revealed that he’s got the inside scoop on what’s going on with the director search, but he’s unable to reveal anything:

"I do [have some inside info on the director] but I can't reveal it, or I won't be alive tomorrow."

Marshall did say, however, that the search has been whittled down to “a couple of candidates, but I don’t know how soon that will be revealed.”

Recently a snippet from an interview with Kennedy and George Lucas was released in which they talked specifically about the director search for Episode VII.  In that video, Kennedy revealed that they were looking at a number of people, including directors that she’s worked with in the past.  Many then brought up the prospect of Joe Johnston possibly stepping in, as he previously took over the Jurassic Park franchise with Jurassic Park III (produced by Kennedy) and has a great eye for adventure as evidenced by films like The Rocketeer and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.  Moreover, he worked on the original Star Wars trilogy as part of the effects unit.

Spurned by a recent editorial by Movies.com editor Erik Davis in which Johnston was heralded as a great choice to helm Episode VII, Huffington Post reached out to the director for his thoughts on directing “it”:

"A lot would depend on what 'it' is. I am very glad to see LucasFilm cranking up to get productive again, regardless of who ends up doing it."

That’s not an outright “no,” so fans of Johnston can take heart in knowing that the filmmaker hasn’t specifically ruled the prospect out.  Hopefully LucasFilm makes an announcement regarding the Episode VII director soon, though, before every single director in town is asked to give his or her thoughts on possibly helming the franchise.

Watch the video interview with Marshall below, in which he also says that there's nothing new to report about Indiana Jones 5 and promises that there will be another Bourne movie.