BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese movie "Shanghai Fortress," set for premiere on Aug. 9, aims to explore a new path for domestic sci-fi films, the movie director Teng Huatao said Sunday.

Benefited by the country's last sci-fi blockbuster "The Wandering Earth," the upcoming high-profile movie hopes to make contributions to the domestic sci-fi movie industry and promote for development in a long run, according to Teng in a briefing in Beijing.

Starring Shu Qi and singer-turned-actor Lu Han and adapted from a novel of the same name by Jiang Nan, the film tells of the city of Shanghai's battle to defend itself against an attack by an alien force that has laid siege to numerous cities around the globe in its quest to harvest a hidden energy only found on earth.

Instead of telling stories about heros like western productions, this sci-fi movie intends to express more about people's patriotism and their attachment to the homeland, and spread the great love of building a community with a shared future for humanity, according to Teng.

"The Wandering Earth" raked in 4.6 billion yuan (about 670 million U.S. dollars) earlier this year and spurred heated discussions about the advent of a new era of China's sci-fi blockbusters.