Sci-fi saga with a local twist

The film, based on American novelist Steve Alten's 1997 novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, is about a China-led research program that encounters unknown creatures in the Mariana Trench. Xu Fan reports.

If Chinese fans feel disappointed today that all the heroes in Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters are Western faces, change is at hand. Now, thanks to China's fast-growing film market, the country with a short history of sci-fi novels is becoming a pivotal part of the futuristic world.

Recently, on a rainy morning in Auckland, New Zealand, China Daily - among the first batch of Chinese media - was invited to the sets of Meg, a huge-budget sci-fi tentpole.