Idea I just had:
Completely re-do the opening to ROTJ, with a newly filmed scene of Bothan spies entering an Imperial facility and stealing the DSII plans along with the info about the Emperor's itinerary. The crawl can easily be adjusted as necessary, something about "Even now some of the Rebellion's operatives are seeking to capture information necessary for a new assault. . ." Many of them die (obviously), but one makes it to their extraction point, where he boards some kind of transport/shuttle and escapes.
GUY ON SHUTTLE: Did you get it?
THE BOTHAN WHO LIVED: Everything we need, and then some.
He pulls out a little holo-emitter and holds up the projection of the plans, on the left side of the camera. The shot then fades (okay, maybe a nice wipe...) to what we know as the ROTJ opening, with the DSII visually replacing the orange plans.
Problems:
- Writing, Filming, Directing, etc a somewhat long and involved sequence that would involve Bothans (costume/makeup) and Stormtroopers and probably Officers as well as special effects. I mean, we're talking a ~5-min short film with music and blasters and everything. And it all has to look like it fits in the same movie as the rest of ROTJ. This is obviously a major problem.
- Characters we've never seen before and won't see again, unless you can insert them into the Briefing (or we conflate/undisambiguate Bothans with Prunefaces)
- Does it even feel like Star Wars?
- I'm sure someone will tell me it's world-shrinkage or something
Advantages:
- Exciting intro to a movie that starts pretty slow
- Shows us another side of the Rebellion
- Adds length to a movie that, after meeting the judicious fan-editor, is probably shorter than the others in the Saga.
So, thoughts?