ben_danger said:
i wonder if any of the story could be re-purposed as 'bothan' spies for the opening? (bothans could just be humans)
There's a fan film called Broken Allegiance:
https://vimeo.com/2847715
It starts with a couple of humans on a small ship fleeing Coruscant and the Executor. At one point I used that scene to open this edit while specifying in the opening crawl that they're Bothan spies who have just stolen the Death Star plans.
I thought it was a nice way to start the film with a bang, but ultimately decided the footage wasn't good enough to use - the fx are good for a fan film, but don't match the look of ROTJ at all. I also agreed with the criticism that it's a bit weird starting with characters we've never seen before (and will never see again).
But it would be nice to start ROTJ with a space battle, and it makes sense to set up the mcguffin in the opening scene.