Chapter 111: The Spatial Revolution

The script could be described as incredibly melodramatic. It was a rough draft Zhu Lan had pieced together by adapting the recent events at the Japanese base and layering on additional elements. Naturally, this script would require extensive revisions before it was ready for production.

A production budget of five hundred million was no laughing matter. While Zhu Lan was not an industry insider, he was well aware of the approximate costs involved. To rapidly accumulate sufficient "Fantasy Power," Zhu Lan planned to employ an all-star cast, aiming to recruit at least a hundred famous celebrities for the film; even bit players might be well-known stars. With such massive star power, regardless of the quality of the film itself, it would be enough to attract a large audience to the theaters.

The plot itself might not be particularly original. To put it bluntly, it was a remake of "Resident Evil." It followed the same premise of a corporation triggering a crisis, but with a twist: instead of a biological virus, the threat came from dinosaurs that had been extinct for sixty million years. Zhu Lan designed several key elements for the film that he personally desired: spatial formulas, spatial transmission devices, new energy systems, planetary fortress cannons, and next-generation bombers.

The spatial formula was the central theme around which the entire film revolved. Spatial technology was something Zhu Lan coveted above all else. While portals existed in anime and literature, they were beyond his reach. Spatial transmission, portals, and even wormhole generation were all applications of spatial technology. It could even be something akin to myth, where advanced power technology opens a pocket of space, creating tech similar to the "spatial rings" found in fantasy novels. Though he didn't know if he would live to see it, at least he was taking the first steps. The spatial transmission channel, derived from the spatial formula, was the core theme of the first film.

In his design, Zhu Lan also incorporated elements of warfare. A five-hundred-million-yuan investment was not at all excessive, especially when translated into over three billion in local currency. The cost of the star-studded cast alone could consume a third of the budget. This film would not only feature domestic stars but also many famous actors from Hollywood, Japan, and Europe, alongside several top-tier domestic superstars, icons, and A-list celebrities. The expenditure for the cast alone would be between seven hundred million and one billion.

The other major expense would be the military involvement. The film would feature large-scale war sequences, and these would be modern warfare scenarios. It was impossible to hire a dozen divisions or hundreds of thousands of soldiers as the script suggested, but securing one or two divisions that encompassed integrated air-land capabilities was essential. The cost of mobilizing tens of thousands of troops was not a small sum, and the production would later require filming sequences involving anti-aircraft missile batteries, short-range surface-to-surface missiles, and ballistic missiles.

Regarding the air force, Zhu Lan intended to include a new type of bomber. It wasn't that he looked down on China's current bombers—the "God of War" was decent, but it didn't hold much significance for him. He would fictionalize a stealth long-range bomber similar to the rumored "H-10." He would be equally thorough with fighter jets; China's most advanced aircraft, such as the J-11, J-16, J-20, and J-31, would all make appearances. The same went for armed helicopters, including new transport-attack variants and a large number of dedicated attack helicopters. Ground forces would feature tank battalions, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery, fixed artillery, and rocket launchers, all organized into massive combat groups. It was safe to say that the war scenes Zhu Lan designed for this film would be the most grand ever captured on screen.

Zhu Lan also planned to include a nuclear submarine unit, launching an intercontinental missile armed with conventional warheads in a specific maritime region.

Star power, combined with the mystique of the Chinese military—these were the two secret weapons Zhu Lan added to the film to draw in audiences. Many might not care about the stars, but what if a film showcased a vast amount of the Chinese military and its most advanced equipment? Chinese weaponry had always been shrouded in mystery globally, with very little information released. Not just foreigners, but even many domestic citizens were curious about it. Apart from a few propaganda films released annually, the Chinese military rarely assisted in film production. It was impossible for foreign directors to get the Chinese military to help with a shoot; China was not like the United States, where, if you paid enough, you could film aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines.

In China, such a thing was absolutely unheard of. Precisely because of this, if Zhu Lan could do what Hollywood did with American war films and showcase China's most advanced hardware, it would undoubtedly capture the attention of the entire world. When the film hit theaters, would he have to worry about the box office? Would he have to worry about Fantasy Power?

Beyond the costs of the stars and the military, there was an even greater expense: special effects. Naturally, Zhu Lan did not intend to outsource this. Given the scale of the production, the special effects alone would likely take a year to create, and the cost would be enough to fund an entire Hollywood blockbuster. However, Zhu Lan possessed an advantage no one else could match: Red Queen. With her capabilities, combined with his ongoing research into virtual technology, the special effects would be indistinguishable from reality. In this regard, even world-leading visual effects companies like Industrial Light & Magic could not compare.

With his current standing, getting the Chinese military to agree to film with their most advanced equipment was eighty percent unlikely. But Zhu Lan had a plan. The so-called "impossible" was only because the incentive wasn't sweet enough. After several dealings with the military, Zhu Lan had come to understand: as long as you provide enough benefits, nothing is impossible. Furthermore, Zhu Lan hoped to include a scene where a state-of-the-art bomber carried a Chinese nuclear weapon. Although it wouldn't be fired, just the sight of it would stun audiences; he had been deeply impacted by American films that utilized nuclear weapons at critical moments. To secure the military's cooperation, Zhu Lan had prepared a grand gift, one that would be tempting to the highest degree: the second film in the "Space Revolution" series.

While he was currently preparing the first film, he was already conceiving the second. The first film would end with the military destroying the core of the spatial transmission device, ending the crisis. The second film would begin with an international task force—comprising China, the United States, and Russia—arresting the management of the "God Domain Corporation" worldwide. After all, God Domain had nearly destroyed the world; how could the world tolerate them?

Countless branches of God Domain were destroyed, with personnel either captured or eliminated. But God Domain was no simple entity. On the surface, it was an energy company, but in the shadows, it was a weapons supplier for the Middle East and Africa. It had connections to several global arms manufacturers, and its own weapons had been sold across the globe, already beginning to erode the United States' dominance in the international arms market.

During several attacks, God Domain’s research facilities utilized individual combat devices that inflicted heavy losses on the special forces of several nations. The nations were no fools; they responded by deploying their own individual combat devices, sparking a future-war style conflict between infantry units. During the massive cleanup operations, they discovered that God Domain had been preparing a mad plan for world domination: using spatial channels to travel to earlier eras and bring ancient entities to Earth.

China was particularly sensitive to this, as the strength of the monsters they had encountered in the first film had been a massive headache; if the core hadn't been destroyed, they might have truly needed to resort to nuclear weapons. Realizing the danger, they intensified their investigation and finally tracked God Domain's headquarters to a mysterious island in the Indian Ocean.

The first wave of attacks ended in failure. The defensive power of God Domain's headquarters was monstrous: hundreds of anti-aircraft missile sites, over a hundred anti-ship missile batteries, and more than a dozen submarines patrolling the prohibited waters. They had placed millions of sonar detection devices in the area; the underwater defenses were more terrifying than those guarding the American mainland. Most importantly, the island was equipped with a massive array of laser weapons capable of shooting down intercontinental missiles from space.

To destroy this base, China, the United States, Russia, Britain, and France formed the largest naval fleet of the century. There were over five aircraft carriers and more than twenty nuclear submarines. Such a massive force was something even the United States could not face alone. To destroy God Domain, the nations displayed true sincerity; the American USS Ford and the Chinese CNS Zhonghua—their two most advanced aircraft carriers—were dispatched directly. To ensure the destruction of God Domain and avoid the spatial turbulence encountered previously, China even revealed two secret battleships they had been developing. These were "space battleships" designed for future orbital combat, equipped with the latest railguns and laser defense systems, with one of them even mounting a miniaturized planetary fortress cannon.

Zhu Lan believed the military would be moved by the second film. Although the second film's plot was even simpler than the first, he was confident he had offered something sufficiently enticing. Regardless of whether the first film succeeded, he would produce the second, with an even greater investment.

Zhu Lan had even prepared a third installment of "Space Revolution." The story would be similar to "Independence Day: Resurgence." At the end of the second film, God Domain launches a massive rocket carrying a spatial transmission device. This satellite flies to Uranus, where it activates the device. After the war, the data recovered from God Domain reveals what the satellite was carrying, but it is too late. The satellite has already flown beyond the range of any weapon, and with Earth's current technology, catching up to it is absolutely impossible.