Updated: A new comment from Zack Snyder's representative was added to this story Jan. 14, 2011 at 2:50 p.m. PST.

When the Akira Kurosawa movie *Seven Samurai *made its way to American shores in 1960 as the Western adaptation The Magnificent Seven, the remake transposed its medieval Japanese warriors into American gunslingers. Now, according to Vulture, an upcoming film by Zack Snyder will transform the heroes of this classic tale into something even more exciting: lightsaber-wielding Jedi.

After Disney bought Lucasfilm and announced that three all-new* Star Wars* films were in the works, Snyder (300, Watchmen) quickly took himself off the shortlist for potential directors, telling the LA Times, "I don’t think I’d be interested." Now, Vulture reports that Snyder will be directing a Star Wars feature after all, but true to his word, it won't be Episode VII (or VIII, or IX). Rather, the project will be a stand-alone film set in the Star Wars universe, and loosely based on the Kurosawa film about seven masterless samurai defending a small farming village from bandits.

Although Lucasfilm declined to comment, a representative of Zack Snyder subsequently denied the report at The Hollywood Reporter, saying that "while he is super flattered because he is a huge fan, Zack is not involved in any way with the new Star Wars. He is currently in post on his two films, Man of Steel and 300: Battle of Artemisia.” The representative confirmed that this meant both the new trilogy and any standalone features.

While the denial may be disappointing news for many fans, *Seven Samurai *still has a significant history with the world of Star Wars. George Lucas has cited the film as "one of my strongest creative inspirations" on the Star Wars films, tried to cast *Seven Samurai *star Toshiro Mifune as Obi-wan Kenobi before offering the role to Alec Guinness, and even the Japanese word for period dramas about samurai – jidai-geki – is widely believed to be the inspiration for the term "Jedi."