Bingowings said:
I had the idea last night of the first film starting with the Spice Freighter that Anakin is the navigator on picking up a distress call and finding a royal yacht that has just escaped from a battle.

It's really badly damaged and is brought onboard and they find Obi-Wan and Luke/Leia's mum inside but the ships that shot at them return and the Captain is killed.

Anakin uses his piloting skills to avade the pirate fleet and they take them to Coruscant.

Throughout the rescue Obi-Wan is sensing that the Force is strong in Anakin and seeks him out to help him track down a former pupil of his Darth Vader who is trying to kill the Queen for some reason (Palpatine has foreseen that any child she has will be his undoing and she is about to be married to the Viceroy of Alderaan).

This brings Obi-Wan back to his home planet of Tatooine.

I think it would be important to start the film off with a space battle and introduce the main ideas as soon as possible (like ANH did).

Good idea but I still think Anakin should be young, like a teenager. Maybe Owen is showing him the ropes in the spice freighter or something? Second, I don't like the idea that Tatooine is Obi-Wan's home planet.