This story’s almost too good to be true. In a testament to the power of social networking and viral marketing, an unknown director from Uruguay went from YouTube to Hollywood in five days.
Director Fede Alvarez says it cost him a grand total of $300 to create a four-minute film short about a robot invasion of Montevideo, the capitol of Uruguay, called “Ataque de Panico!” (Panic Attack). The film features a young boy playing with robots along an urban waterfront who is interrupted by giant robots approaching his city. As the robots slowly invade, panic gradually overtakes the citizens. Chaos ensues, erupting in total destruction.
“I uploaded ‘Ataque de Panico!’ on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of emails from Hollywood studios,” Alvarez tells the BBC.
Since Alvarez uploaded the video to YouTube last month it’s gotten 1.8 million views as of this writing.
Clearly Hollywood was watching and everyone wanted a piece of Alvarez. In the end, the budding director landed a $30 million deal with Ghost House Pictures, headed up by Sam Raimi (known for “Spiderman” and the “Evil Dead” films.)
Now before you start rolling your eyes (or better yet, before you lunge for you camcorder) bear in mind that Alvarez’ short is a slice of genius. The production value of his short film is better than some Hollywood films I’ve seen lately (surely better than “2012,” right?) Everything from the shooting, the editing, the storytelling, camera angles, music, casting, and the robots themselves — just about every aspect of the film is beautifully executed.
Alvarez’ $30 million deal will have him directing a sci-fi thriller set in Argentina and Uruguay. It won’t be a feature length version of “Panic Attack,” but I’m sure we can expect to see the same doomsday effects and gorgeous production value.
“If some director from some country can achieve this just uploading a video to YouTube, it obviously means that anyone could do it,” Alvarez told the BBC.
Well, let’s just say it helps to add a hefty dose of talent to the mix.
Check out “Panic Attack” below:
Photo courtesy of Fede Alvarez via YouTube.