People were understandably disturbed by the news yesterday that George Lucas is buying up film rights with the intention of using the likenesses of dead celebrities to make a super-star-studded film. The whole thing was reminiscent of the DirecTV commercial controversy back in 2008 when the satellite TV company used archive footage of Heather O'Rourke in Poltergeist to sell they're wares, and people were none to happy about that either. Fortunately, the story isn't true.

OnTheRedCarpet has spoken to a representative from LucasFilm who has denied the story, saying that it "is a false rumor." The story originated with actor/director and former Lucas collaborator Mel Smith who also criticized the director's overuse of CGI, calling the last two Star Wars film's ghastly.

So now the question is, if the story is indeed untrue, where did Smith pick up the idea that George Lucas was doing this? It seems like a pretty specific and heavy allegation to make. Considering how brief the LucasFilm rep's statement was, is it possible that there's some truth to the rumor? I guess we'll just have to wait to hear clarification from Smith's end.