Bay Area land baron George Lucas dropped by to chat with Conan O'Brien on last night's show from San Francisco, stoically enduring a procession of cheaply revised Star Wars characters meant to elicit a chuckle from a creator who wasted untold millions developing his own ridiculous affronts to the 'Star Wars' legacy. The unamused Lucas did offer a grudging thumbs-up to R2-Mr.T2 and seemed indifferent at best to Liposuctioned Jabba the Hut, but we think we detected a flash of annoyance at the appearance of Jewbacca, whose unexpected embrace of Judaism makes a mockery of the Wookiee's deep-seated faith in the Force.

In an interview with MTV News, writer/director Frank Darabont, fresh off shooting upcoming horror flick The Mist, briefly discusses the indignities of even an A-list screenwriting life, revealing how helming a second-tier Stephen King adaptation is preferable to the powerlessness of being subject to the whims of megalomaniacal producers with total script approval:

· Lovable My Name is Earl wrong-righter Jason Lee will tackle the demanding role of perpetually put-upon, tantrum-throwing musical novelty act manager Dave Seville in a hybrid live-action/CGI Alvin and the Chipmunks feature, a project that will certainly be safe for viewing by oddly named offspring Pilot Inspektor. There is no word as to where contractually mandated co-star Giovanni Ribisi will slot into the movie, but he seems a natural for the part of Theodore. [Variety]
· Pilot casting madness! Jeffrey Tambor joins CBS comedy The Captain, Michelle Trachtenberg is in an untitled ABC comedy set in D.C., and Kal Penn will play a hypochondriac paramedic in the ABC comedy The Call. [THR]
· As mentioned yesterday, Battle of Shaker Heights immortal Shia LaBeouf is all but locked up to play Harrison Ford's son in Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' Indiana Jones 4: Please Don't Fuck This One Up By Having The Cute Kid Constantly Saving His Old Man's Ass. [Variety]
· Disney announces that Pixar's gone into production on Toy Story 3, and that their Disney Animation division will go with old-timey, hand-drawn animation for The Frog Princess. [THR]
· Today's American Idol Nielsen domination fun fact: Wednesday night's installment averaged "more than five times the rating" of competition on ABC, CBS, NBC, and The CW. [Variety]

As fans hungrily anticipate the long-awaited fourth installment of Steven Spielberg's big screen adventure series that began with 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark (possible title: Indiana Jones and the Slowly Veering Lincoln Continental of Doom), the Internets have been teeming with casting rumors. Most notable among them: that Shia LaBeouf—who'll be fighting Soundwave and his evil boombox cassette-recorder ways this summer in Michael Bay's Transformers—would be playing Indy's son. Slate is now reporting that the rumors are true:

For Harrison Ford fans who've generously looked the other way while the actor made a solid decade's worth of regrettable career choices (a creatively arid period occasionally enlivened by puckishly crapulent awards show appearances), today brings the news they've long been waiting for: George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have finally approved a script and Indiana Jones 4 will start shooting in June, allowing Ford to indefinitely shelve Doggy Door, the project he'd planned to topline while waiting for Indy to come together. In a statement heralding the sequel's emergence from nearly twenty years of development hell, Ford self-deprecatingly addresses the age issue:

· Monday's Rose Parade will feature George Lucas and hundreds of nerds fans dressed as Stormtroopers marching alongside a "Star Wars Spectacular" float "inspired by the landscape of the planet Naboo." Also: The Grambling State U. marching band from Louisiana dressed as Imperial officers, playing "Main Title," "Imperial March" and "The Throne Room," with a "New Orleans Twist." OK, now we kind of want to check this out. [Variety]
· A look at ten "sure thing" stories predicted for 2006 that never panned out, including "Pellicano scandal is Hollywood's Watergate," "Kevin Reilly is on his way out," and all those agency merger rumors that ultimately went nowhere. [Variety]
· It was the year of the midrange budget movies, from Borat to Jackass: Number Two. Look for many more wobbly Handicam movies featuring even more testicles and homoerotic pranksterism in 2007. [Variety]
· The networks are grappling over whether or not to air Saddam Hussein's execution, with Fox reportedly looking at compromising by running a reality special entitled, Saddam Hussein: If We Hanged Him, Here's How We Did It. [THR]
· "Paging Mr. Boll. Mr. Uwe. Boll. Could you please approach the critic-pummeling, hacky video-game-movie director counter?" Capcom partners with Hyde Park Entertainment for Street Fighter: The Movie. [THR]

If the only chill you felt when the Darth Vader mask was lowered onto Hayden Christensen's head at the end of Episode III was the pleasurable tingling of knowing the credits couldn't be far behind, you are not alone. But according to Page Six, some Star Wars fans would go so far as to accuse Christensen of single-handedly ruining the franchise, to his face: