Chapter 26

At night, Jiang Heng, back at the hotel, couldn't sleep; he sat by the window pondering the shooting plan for the second film.

The late 1990s was an awkward time point; Hollywood films were conquering the global film market, while the Chinese-language market was still in its infancy.

Relying solely on the domestic market for special-effects blockbusters yields too little profit.

Looking worldwide, one must also consider whether audiences can understand it.

Monster movies are an excellent choice; the production cost of Jurassic Park 1 was not high, yet it grossed 9.12 billion USD worldwide, its merchandise sold like hotcakes, and the theme park project continuously generated revenue for the company.

Jiang Heng planned to draw inspiration from Jurassic Park to create a domestically produced monster movie.

Speaking of plot, the entire Jurassic series is actually lackluster; no matter how you edit it, you can't avoid the chase-and-escape scenes.

That's why the box office of the Jurassic Park trilogy kept declining; only after more than ten years did they reboot the IP and film Jurassic World.

Therefore, stunning visual effects and a novel storyline are equally important.

Jiang Heng sat at the computer, imitating Jurassic Park's setting, and after half an hour everything still felt off.

If they directly filmed pure ancient-era scenes, they'd worry the audience wouldn't feel immersed.

In his irritation, he happened to notice the half-flipped, upside-down Seeking Qin Record on the bedside, and inspiration struck instantly.

"I can write a modern special forces soldier who takes a time machine to the Qin Dynasty; due to a malfunction, he mistakenly enters the prehistoric world and arrives in the Jurassic."

A special forces soldier in the Jurassic can showcase many wilderness survival plotlines.

The Wilderness Survival series, which premiered in 2006, remained hot for over ten years.

In the short-video era, some wilderness-survival-type videos still enjoy super-high popularity.

"The Jurassic probably had no primitive humans, right?"

Jiang Heng once imagined the male lead meeting primitive humans and helping them fend off dinosaurs.

He then realized humanity's appearance time seemed not that early; a computer check confirmed it—even the earliest apes date back only 35 million years.

The end of the Jurassic, however, was 145.5 million years ago—far too distant.

"If it's just the male lead, Wu Yan Zu could play him himself, and there can't be any casualties!" Jiang Heng stood up, muttering.

Thinking back to Haolaiwu's overdone shark movies, they always need a few characters to get killed off to seem tense and exciting!

But sending multiple people to prehistory makes this time‑machine setting feel a bit incongruous.

We can't just borrow the setting from 'Shrouding the Heavens' and have nine dragons pull a coffin!

Although presenting it in film would give a super shocking visual effect, for domestic and foreign audiences who haven't been exposed to fantasy novels, it seems not easy to understand.

Or we could rely on astronomical power and have a nine‑star conjunction!

Jiang Heng thought of this, already having a rough idea, and began typing on the keyboard.

The plot outline is set in 2000, when a national archaeological team in the small city of Jiayin on the Sino‑Russian border, within the Xiao Hinggan Mountains forest, discovered a huge group of dinosaur bone fossils.

When this news reached international antiquities traffickers, they dispatched a small mercenary squad that crossed the border from Heilongjiang and sneaked into the Xiao Hinggan Mountains, waiting for a chance to steal the dinosaur fossils.

Although the Chinese side was unaware of this news, they still sent a few armed police to protect the archaeological team for safety's sake.

The male lead, whose combat ability is off the charts, is naturally a former special forces soldier.

A major battle broke out, leaving both sides with some casualties.

Then the astronomical wonder of a nine‑star conjunction appeared, and everyone inside the dinosaur burial pit was sent by a mysterious force to the Jurassic era.

In this dangerous prehistoric world, the archaeological team and the mercenaries had to band together, relying on their limited weapons to fight various dinosaurs.

Jiang Heng, caught up in his writing, pulled an all‑nighter, only returning to his room to sleep after breakfast.

He woke up after two in the afternoon, picked up his phone, and saw a pile of missed calls.

After ignoring the unimportant ones, he returned all the remaining calls.

On Han Sanping's end, receiving Jiang Heng's call actually made him somewhat excited.

"Are you okay? I thought if you didn't answer in a while I'd go straight to the hotel to find you—did you drink too much?"

Jiang Heng laughed: "No, I pulled an all‑nighter writing the script!"

Han Sanping exclaimed delightedly: "How's the writing?"

"Well, it's roughly a script outline; after some tweaks within this framework, it'll be about done!"

"Wait for me, I'll be there in less than half an hour!"

Han Sanping hung up, instructed his driver to take him to the Shangri-La, arrived at Jiang Heng's room, and asked how the script was going.

Jiang Heng orally recounted the plot outline; Han Sanping exclaimed delightedly: "The idea of modern people going to the Jurassic is good. To be frank, when I went back yesterday I also thought of imitating Jurassic Park's model, but no matter how I wrote it it felt awkward."

Jiang Heng laughed: "Our domestic situation differs from that of the old US; copying the setting outright would feel really out of place!"

Han Sanping laughed, "Yeah, I've been mulling over putting the dinosaur park on Snake Island off the coast of Dalian!"

"The idea is still not bad!"

Han Sanping also said, "Adding the mercenary setting is good; it allows weapons to be brought to prehistory, intensifying the combat!"

Jiang Heng laughed, "I thought at the time that having foreign mercenaries would increase Western faces, which is more favorable for overseas sales of the film rights!"

Han Sanping nodded repeatedly, "Indeed, overseas box office for this kind of film is extremely important!"

After a moment's pondering, he asked, "How many tens of thousands of yuan would it take to film this?"

Jiang Heng gave it some thought, "The prehistoric world's scenes basically all need special effects, plus all kinds of dinosaurs, so the cost will definitely be tens of millions!"

Han Sanping, hearing this, felt a chill in his heart and muttered, "If the budget is tens of millions, we can't spend too much on actors!"

Jiang Heng nodded; he had in mind letting Wu Yan Zu and Li Meiqi continue to participate.

After all, the two starred in the globally released 'The Matrix', giving them some fame, which is more conducive to obtaining higher overseas box office.

"Alright, when the time comes I'll find a few actors with good acting skills but low pay to play supporting roles!"

Jiang Heng naturally had no objection; since they were choosing to cooperate, they would definitely have to cede some authority.

The two then discussed some co‑production details, and basically could reach agreement.

Only the investment amount from Beiying Factory, Han Sanping cannot decide unilaterally; he must go back for collective discussion and decision.

But he also gave a rough investment amount, between ten and twenty million yuan.

Although there is some risk, given the box office success of *The Matrix*, Jiang Heng having obtained extremely high returns, I believe the leadership of Beiying Factory will approve his proposal.

Not mentioning Han Sanping's departure, Jiang Heng again called Wu Yan Zu, 'What arrangements do you have recently?'

Wu Yan Zu hurriedly said, 'I just finished filming a movie, the remaining scripts all feel bad; Cheng Long, his older brother, said he's willing to take me along, but he's going to Haolaiwu, and there doesn't seem to be a suitable role for me…'

'Okay, I have a script here, planning to start shooting around April; remember to keep the schedule open for me!'

(End of chapter)