http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/sorry-timothy-zahn-fans-the-new-star-wars-movies-wont-be-using-his-stuff-nadam.php

Here's a link to more info about Thrawn, etc.

 Like most of y'all, I'm happy the EU is being ignored, as previously  mentioned, a lot of it is very weak writing with a lightsaber or an x-wing thrown in to make it sell. 

That said, I still think Disney should think seriously about doing the Thrawn books and not just because I think Lucas has a 50/50 track record at best with his story concepts. 

Thing is, making the Zahn books into movies is virtually a slam dunk- they're well received by the fans, there's a lot of appealing elements (space battles, romance, awesome villian, etc.) that even non-fans would enjoy, the stories are solid and diverse enough for a director to sink his teeth in. The only caveat is re-casting Luke, Han, Leia, etc. as those characters obviously play main roles in the main plotline again. 

Now, a clean slate approach seems like something a Joss Whedon-type might want- you get rid of the re-casting, don't have to worry about canon nerds, but here's the problem: The Truce at Bakura. 

Do you remember that book? I had pretty much forgotten about it, but that's kind of my point- Bakura tried to introduce an antagonist besides the Empire types; some alien race (Ssi-Ruuk maybe- can't remember for sure) which exemplifies the problem. 

To pay all that dough for Star Wars, you gotta maximize ROI and fast to appease shareholders. Taking things that are synonymous with Star Wars- lightsabers, TIEs, Stormtroopers, the Falcon, X-Wings… That's where it's at. Not a bunch of characters, settings, and races not readily familiar with the franchise. If you want to reinvent the sci-fi wheel, why bother paying for Lucas' stuff? You could reboot Buck Rodgers or Flash Gordon for a helluva lot less than four billion and have a similar outcome. 

 Even if Lucas goes his with his own direction having thrawn as a character in the trilogy would be a no brainer (which probably means it won't happen)

Reading the wikipedia excerpt about G.L's thoughts about episode 7-9 the thrawn trilogy seemed to hit it pretty close to the mark having thrawn as either the main villain or a secondary villain character would be a nice nod to fans.