Showbiz411

Wunderkind J.J. Abrams is the new director of “Star Wars.” It makes sense. One of his first big film assignments was writing “Regarding Henry,” starring Han Solo himself, Harrison Ford. So we know Ford will be in the mix. (I already know that Carrie Fisher is in, from sources close to the actress.) Even before “Regarding Henry,” Abrams worked for Steven Spielberg cataloging his archives.

So it all makes sense that the guy who brought us “Alias” and “Lost” and revived both “Mission: Impossible” and “Star Trek” would finally get a shot at the series that inspired him in the first place. But Abrams did tell Empire Magazine last month that he’d turned “Star Wars” down. A friend of his told me: “It wasn’t about the money. He doesn’t need any money. But he loves magic, and Star Wars was his first love.”

More to come, but it does seem like “Star Wars” is in good hands.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.