JLB_Tosche

My go to guys with this one would have to be Joe Johnston (Lucas, Spielberg, protege) for Episode VII, Thomas Alfredson (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) for Episode VIII and Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) for Episode IX.
For writers, I could see Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, Tintin, Coupling, Sherlock) as capturing the high adventure and high melodrama tone of the franchise well. Hell, it's a long shot but Lawrence Miles (Faction Paradox, Doctor Who) could turn out a cracking Star Wars screenplay.

darth_ender said:

MrInsaneA said:

darth_ender said:

Well, it is shorter than the Executor, but...thicker.  Personally, if we include it, I think it should be a big ship.  Part of my reason for advocating it at all is because Vader brought the Executor, the Emperor would bring his big bad boy and flaunt his capital ship.  If it's going to be a small ship, I'd honestly rather not include it.

Okay...I'm still for it. GOECLIPSEGO!!!!

I'm actually surprised how many have been at all interested in the idea.  I though when I first said it that it would be immediately shot down and trampled :)

This reminds me of the Nimitz and Enterprise in today's aircraft carriers: the Enterprise is the longer ship, but the Nimitz is newer and more massive.

The Eclipse features a lot in Dark Empire, there's likely audio lines referring to the ship should you need any com-channel talk about it. 

Back on the Star Tours topic, I spotted some footage that could be useful. One enterprising fan has created rather a good CGI reconstruction of the ride: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/08/fancreated-cg-version-of-original-star-tours-for-viewing-at-home-in-3d/

There's talk going on of including the Eclipse? Sounds interesting and potentially difficult, you probably want to avoid it ending up with some one-upping game going on: You think a Star Destroyer's big? Look at my Super Star Destroyer! You think that's big? Check out this Eclipse class Super Star Destroyer! You think that's big? Have a look at our Second Death Star!
Perhaps it could be used as the Emperor's transport to the Death Star, have it dock and not mentioned. Or, use it for the Emperor's throne room scenes. 

darth_ender said:

Guys, I'm just realizing that we essentially voted for a forest fire on the Endor surface (passing MrInsaneA's suggested images on the vote).  How on earth (or Endor) can we do this?  I don't see how we could work the beautiful image into a reasonable plot device.  We're already trying to show the Ewoks in a disadvantaged position and only surviving because the generator is destroyed and the Imperials are then disorganized.  I don't see how with available footage we could make a reasonable plot line involving that, both because a forest fire would completely destroy them, and also because we'd have to show some resolution to this.  It just seems unreasonable to me.

It might be possible to give the ideas of raging fires on Endor through the use of a montage. There is that montage series of shots with Ewoks tripping AT-ST walkers and the like where footage like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdayNALle_s (burning forest shots from Old Republic trailer, 34-48 seconds in) could be incorporated. I think there are some shots in Battle For Endor that could be of use too.  

Just to spitball some more ideas, I've been thinking of a different way to open the film that can incorporate the "Bothan spies" idea to some degree. 
I've made a mock up of that opening here: http://vimeo.com/35740289
The idea for this being that we don't see the Bothans stealing the Death Star plans, but we do get an impression of the aftermath of that. Perhaps something like this video combined with an opening crawl like the one below could work for that:

"The Rebel Alliance has learnt that the GALACTIC EMPIRE is secretly constructing a second DEATH STAR, one even more powerful than the first. When completed this battle station will spell certain doom for the Alliance.

In a desperate bid to avert destruction Princess Leia, leading a band of Bothan commandoes, fought her way onto the Imperial facility on Had Abbadon to steal the Death Star plans. At a great cost of life, Leia and her team were able to escape and deliver the plans to the Alliance.

THE EMPEROR has dispatched his apprentice, DARTH VADER, to Had Abbadon to ensure Death Star is safely completed. However Vader is distracted by his quest to locate his son, Luke Skywalker..."

Using additional footage, I've started work on a scene between Vader and Boba Fett, the idea here being that we see Vader send out Fett to find Luke. This could add some tension to seeing Fett in Jabba's palace, his presence there now being part of Vader's plans to capture Luke. 

Finally, this is just the way I think see these opening scenes could play out:

Opening Crawl.
Vader's Tie Fighter arrives on Had Abbadon.
Vader contacts Luke (on Dagobah) through the Force.
Luke senses Vader whilst building his Lightsaber, is called by R2 to Yoda's hut.
Luke goes to Yoda's deathbed, meets with Obi Wan.
Bobba Fett meets Vader on Had Abbadon, is sent after Luke.
Vader leaves for his Star Destroyer, Fett heads to Tattooine.
Vader's Star Destroyer arrives at the Death Star.
Luke arrives at Tattooine; "I've a promise to keep to an old friend".
R2 and C3PO arrive at Jabba's Palace. 

PS.
I've had a quick flick through the Dark Empire audio, only a few Billy Dee lines and probably not of much use. To quickly paraphrase the lines, so far I've found:
"I don't think our field weapons are doing much against those huge Imperial Walkers", "Get Down!", "If we tell the Imperials that, maybe they'll break for lunch", "Luke's growing strong. Very strong. I've not seen anyone like that since... Vader", "You okay Wedge?", "Han Solo; you old space pirate.. what are you doing here?".

I've a copy of Dark Empire, will give it a flick through later for Billy Dee. 
More recent games like the Force Unleashed II could be used for some shots, there's a space battle in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huI36JG1R3s (around the 8 minute mark) that might be useful for the odd short shot of Star Destroyers and the like if colour graded to match the rest of the footage and so on.

Long time lurker, first time poster here. Just popping in to point out that Billy Dee not only starred in the ESB radio adaptation, but in the Dark Empire Trilogy radio series and the game Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast too. You should be able to find more unique Lando lines somewhere in those productions.