The first blockbuster (大片) of China set in space, “The Wandering Earth,” opens Tuesday during grand expectations     1     it will represent the dawning of a new era in Chinese filmmaking.

“The Wandering Earth,”     2     (show) in 3-D, takes place in a distant future in which the sun is about to expand into a red giant and devour (吞噬) the Earth. It     3     (adapt) from works by Liu Cixin, the writer     4     has led a renaissance in science fiction here,     5     (become) the first Chinese winner of the Hugo Award in 2015. His novels are splendid and     6     (deep) researched. That makes     7     (they) reasonable fantasies about humanity’s meeting with a dangerous universe. The openings also come as China reached a milestone in space: the landing of a probe on     8     far side of the moon in January. Although decades behind Russia and the United States, China has now put astronauts     9     orbit and has ambitious plans to join—or even lead—a new age of space exploration.

“I think there is a very close     10     (connect) between Chinese cinema and the nation’s fortunes,” said Sha Dan, a curator at the China Film Archive.