You're thinking of doing something like an explosion to rattle the ship seriously and then drop the balcony on Obi-Wan, aren't you?
(2) Since I am hoping not to show Palpatine turning around in his chair, this might prove annoying as I would need to use After Effects to remove Anakin and Obi-wan in order to use Palpatine's wide shot for scene establishment.
Ah. I missed that. Nvrmnd then...
(4) I see your point about Palpatine. "[W]here Anakin is when Dooku's doing the Force push?" LOL Same question I had in the original cut of the movie. Anyway I've looked at it, Anakin should somehow be in the shot, but he's not. Someone suggested a shadow of him from off-screen? What do you think?
I'd suggested having his silhouette somehow blocking part of the shot for a brief second, moving right to left, but the logistics might be beyond anything but WETA
Another possibility I thought of might be to roto a moving blue saber blade in over part of the frame for a brief second just to give the impression that he's there just off-camera. If it's timed right I think it could work... and I'd reiterate my comment in another thread that Obi-Wan's landing on the floor IMHHO should be shortened at the beginning, because it feels a beat too long and makes the audience think Anakin's just waiting for his cue to attack Dooku instead of hammering straight at him...(5) "My impression on viewing Dooku's execution is that Anakin was in cahoots with Palpatine" I can see that, too. I was trying to indicate that Anakin is somehow motivated by Palpatine to kill without the horrid dialogue, whether it was Anakin's own emotional attachment to Palpatine or Palpatine worming his way into Anakin's mind. But audience impression is more important than intent. In light of that, I think GM's "heat-of-the-moment" execution may be best.
It was just my initial impression ... it does work on repeated viewings, but I hope I was coming to it with a fresh head when I first viewed it...
And lastly: I think you've actually got the choice of "Surrender, friends"or "Surrender, gentlemen." Because the 'friends' line also comes from that meeting in Ep 2: "Our friends from the Trade Federation have pledged their support."