(Photo: Reuters/William Gularte)People dressed as characters from Star Wars pose during a Star Fans Celebration in Guatemala City October 2, 2011. The celebration, aimed at fans of the films, took place for the seventh consecutive year.

Star Wars VII will be written by Oscar winner Michael Arndt, according to new rumors sparked by Vulture, and confirmed recently by LucasFilm.

The news is sure to get Star Wars fans' attention, and according to the rumors Arndt has already penned a "40 to 50 page treatment" for the hugely anticipated film.

Disney and LucasFilm have apparently been impressed by Arndt's Oscar credentials, and his past work with Disney and Toy Story 3.

This is the statement released by LucasFilm:

"As pre-production of Star Wars: Episode VII begins, LucasFilm has confirmed that award-winning writer Michael Arndt will write the screenplay for the new Star Wars film. As revealed in the ongoing video series posted here on StarWars.com,Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas have begun story conferences with Arndt. Arndt won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing Toy Story 3 (2010)."

J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird and Steven Spielberg will reportedly get the chance to see the draft that Arndt has written, although it should be noted that none of those directors have been confirmed for the part yet.

Other reports have suggested that Arndt actually has written three separate drafts for a trilogy of new Star Wars films; Episode VII, Episode VIII, and Episode IX, according to Deadline.

Arndt is a hugely popular screenwriter, having written Toy Story 3 for Disney and Pixar in the past. He also contributed to the script for "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire." However, the screenplay for "Little Miss Sunshine" is his work that earned him his Oscar.

LucasFilm was recently sold to Disney for $4.05 billion less than two weeks ago and that immediately sparked a wave of rumors about "Star Wars: Episode VII."

Other rumors to emerge in the past week have been that Harrison Ford could be involved in the film, and Matthew Vaughn and Colin Trevorrow have also been mentioned as possible directors.