George Lucas Won't Make Shia LaBeouf Main Indiana Jones Star

Director GEORGE LUCAS has ruled out making a new INDIANA JONES movie around SHIA LaBEOUF's character in the third sequel, because the action franchise would be nothing without main star HARRISON FORD.

The moviemaker had previously hinted that a fifth adventure could focus more on Indiana Jones' son, Mutt Williams - the role played by LaBeouf in this year's (08) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Speaking during promotion for the 2008 action adventure, he said: "I have an idea to make Shia the lead character next time and have Harrison come back like Sean Connery did in the last movie."

But Lucas has now backtracked over his comments, insisting Ford "is Indiana Jones".

He says, "If it was Mutt Williams, it would be Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis or something."

But Lucas insists there are no definite plans for a fifth movie just yet.

He adds, "The franchise really depends on me coming up with a good idea.

"And that series is very research intensive. So we're doing research now to see if we can't come up with another object for him to chase... hopefully we'll come up with something."