Are We Witnessing the Birth of the Next 'District 9'?
Uruguayan commercials director sells his alien pitch for seven figures
Back on November 20, The Hollywood Reporter pointed out Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez's 2009 short Ataque de Panico (Panic Attack) after the sub-5-minute short made its way onto YouTube and became an instant online phenomenon.
Now, Variety is reporting Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures has made a seven-figure deal with Alvarez to direct his pitch for a feature length alien invasion film. Of course, this deal is prompting people to ask if we are looking at the next Neill Blomkamp, the South African director of this summer's breakout hit District 9.
Alvarez made Panic Attack through his commercial production house at a cost between $300-$500 about an apocalyptic robot attack. Following the online storm of attention, he made a trip to Hollywood, where he met with every major agency, management firm and law firm that responded to the short–and a big deal.
The film Alvarez agreed to make at Ghost House is an original idea for an alien invasion and not based on the short as the production house is now seeking a screenwriter to pen the script based on the helmer's pitch.
If this doesn't have potential filmmakers realizing the power of the Internet it should, as a once unknown Uruguayan commercials director is now rubbing elbows with Sam Raimi and prepping his own feature film all based on the short you can watch directly below.
Showing 12 Comments
~ PLEASE NOTE ~
If, in any way, your comment is an attack on the author of this post or a previous commenter, your comment will be deleted without question.
Add a New CommentNOTE: The Facebook login option has been disabled. We apologize for any inconvenience. |
Click to Read Our Commenting Rules & Guidelines
I love how they used the 28 weeks later theme for this short, it's a great song and works so well with the video.
This looks nice – but all I kept thinking of, "From which movie is the music?" The fact that I can't remember annoys the hell out of me.
@Jeremy Baril: THANK YOU! :-)
More shakycam. Yay! (Uh, I think.)
Visually striking, but "Alive in Joburg" this is not. "Alive in Joburg" actually didn't have great SFX; what it did have was an incredibly striking concept. I'm not too sure this particular short has anything more to offer than Cloverfield-esque thrills.
Transformers 3?
The special effects were stunning for an internet short like this, but story-telling wise it was nothing special.
Looks like nothing more than a VFX reel to me. 90% of music videos have more of a story to them than that video. Shaky cameras and explosions can only keep an audience entertained for so long…
Why is every movie with giant robots all of sudden a Transformers movie? Granted District 9 was a pretty average movie and so was Terminator Salvation, but apparently nobody can make a giant robot story or movie without the "Transformers 1.5, 2.5, 3" label?
Apparently no one has heard of Voltron, or Gundam, or Big O…
@Nick: True, shaky cameras and explosions can only keep an audience entertained for so long. Luckily for studios, "only so long" is usually longer than a feature film.
I'm not buying it.
For starters there's no way he made that for the amount that is being reported, whether in Uruguay or not. Also, I just don't see the big-budget potential in this. It's kind of fun I suppose, but nothing in the short really sticks out to me. If I had to say anything about it, it's that hopefully this will be a lesson learned in Hollywood that not every foreign short about aliens can be District 9.
Here's to hoping this guy proves me wrong, but right now I'm not a believer.
Looks pretty dumb
I love this video because it is a truly incredible feat to make a film of this caliber for such a minimal budget.