Josh Trank will direct stand-alone ‘Star Wars' film

NEW YOR -- Josh Trank will direct one of the stand-alone "Star Wars" films.

Lucasfilm announced Wednesday the 30-year-old filmmaker will helm one of the two announced "Star Wars" spinoffs being made outside of the third trilogy. An earlier announced spinoff will be led by "Godzilla" director Gareth Edwards.

Trank is the director of 2012's found-footage science fiction thriller "Chronicle." He is working on "The Fantastic Four," the superhero team-up reboot scheduled for release next year.

Lucasfilm gave no details on the "Star Wars" movie. J.J. Abrams is in production on "Star Wars: Episode VII," which follows "The Return of the Jedi" in chronology.

Abrams on Tuesday tweeted a photo with a note pleading for people not to leak photos from the set of "Episode VII." In recent days, dozens of photos from the set of the film have appeared online.

But his message was also tongue-in-cheek. Though Abrams alluded to "ridiculous claims that the Millennium Falcon is in the movie," his note was wryly placed on the spaceship's familiar "Holochess" board. "Star Wars" fans quickly picked up on the pun.