SEND IN THE CLONES!

OK, George Lucas, what’s it gonna be? Is “Star Wars 4” gonna go?

At mid-week we asked a rep for Lucasfilm, who said, “I don’t know where these rumors get started. At present, it’s just not on the boards.”

But a few days earlier, at the opening ceremonies for his Star Tours attraction at Disneyland, Lucas was asked about it by one of our friends and declared, “I want to finish the cycle. I intend to get down to it once I’ve cleared my present schedule. It’s still there, and I’d really like to do it.”

In fact, Cinefantastique, the sci-fi/fantasy/horror magazine, says in its latest issue that production will begin this year on “The Clone Wars”--a.k.a. “Star Wars 4”--with filming set for Kenya, Morocco and Switzerland. According to the magazine, the storyline’s all about the young Obi-Wan Kenobi and the young Darth Vader.