$300 Robot video = $ 30 million Hollywood deal

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Deepak

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http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/buzzlog-uruguay-to-hollywood.html

From Uruguay to Hollywood: Watch the Video
by Claudine Zap · December 18, 2009

Here's a fairy tale that could only happen in the movies. Man makes YouTube video. Goes to Hollywood. Gets pots of money and a movie deal. Except this story is true.

An unknown producer from Uruguay, Fede Alvarez, shelled out about $300 to create a cool video of a robot invasion in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. The four-minute short, "Ataque de Panico!" (Panic Attack) features ginormous (but slow-moving) weapon-wielding robots that blow stuff up.

We have to admit, it has pretty amazing production values. The Playlist gushed that the director may be the next Neill Blomkamp, who made the South African-based alien flick "District 9." With the blog abuzz, the South American short went viral, and has already been viewed on YouTube 1.5 million times.

Well, apparently nothing gets by Hollywood these days. The lucky duck told the BBC, "I uploaded 'Ataque de Panico!' on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of emails from Hollywood studios." Long story short, a bidding war ensued. The offer he pocketed: A $30 million deal with Sam "Spiderman" Raimi's Ghost House Pictures. That's a nice return on investment.
The picture will be a sci-fi thriller set in Argentina and Uruguay. In case you're hoping to see the feature-length version of "Panic Attack!" in a movie theater, it won't be from this deal. The newly minted "it" guy says he will start from scratch.
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Video -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dadPWhEhVk

 
Pretty nuts. Today Hollywood sinks $30M just into movie rights before a single page of script is written, a single actor is cast or a single frame is shot... In 1977, Star Wars was completed at a cost of ~11 million total.

Ok, so adjusted for inflation that would be considerably more today, but still... Puts things into perspective doesn't it!
 
Grall said:
Pretty nuts. Today Hollywood sinks $30M just into movie rights before a single page of script is written, a single actor is cast or a single frame is shot... In 1977, Star Wars was completed at a cost of ~11 million total.

Ok, so adjusted for inflation that would be considerably more today, but still... Puts things into perspective doesn't it!
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Yeah it does. It's kind of telling that Hollywood is so devoid of ideas they have a bidding war on something just like this. Not saying the guy doesn't deserve it, that video for $300 is mightily impressive.
 
If thats what he can do for $300 he should be able to do the whole movie for about $2,000 and pocket the 29.9 million
 
Great story, but I don't get it - whats so hot about the 57th version of the mixture of Independance day and Transformers? I wouldn't pay $30 for this, let alone $30 Mio.
 
Xxx, before hollywood scriptwriters get through with transforming this short youtube video of transformers meeting independence day into a feature-length motion picture you'll see they will manage to finagle in subplots involving a man making up with his girlfriend he previously wronged, saving baby seals and helping treehuggers protect the environment (all while gasoline explosions go off left and right on-screen)...
 
Why would huge robots bother packing large missiles and firing them when all they do is form in the center of the city and detonate themselves anyway?
 
Maybe their weapon systems were designed for warfare against opponents with very strong anti-air defenses and ... no fuck it, it's just stupid. It makes Independence day look like hard scifi, lets hope he gets someone decent to write the script.
 
I'm not going to belittle the work that the creator put into this video (hell. it's better than anything I could personally do, probably better than what 99.986% of most users on this forum could achieve), I just think that the studios are in a mad rush to ride on the coattails of success of district 9 (and cloverfield to some extent).
 
Yes it is fantastic work for one guy at home, or however he did it. But one must consider what the production studios saw in the video that made them all send frantic offers? Effects are nothing since any studio can throw millions of dollars to a CGI firm and get whatever they need. Concept? Um, aliens attacking earth? Yeah never been done before. Nonsensical technology or scenes? Definitely done before. Robots transforming into something else? Hmm, I've heard that one before as well.

Kudos to the creator but the only reason the studios want to do the movie was because he released the short and due to social networking it spread like wildfire and lots of people went "wow".
 
FrameBuffer said:
probably better than what 99.986% of most users on this forum could achieve)
Click to expand...

What...
Have you not seen Humus's cgi work
hair_large.jpg
 
FrameBuffer: not belittling his work at all, just wondering about the stupidity of the studios.

BTW, was District 9 really successful? I thought it's the worst movie since EP:1.

Grall said:
Xxx, before hollywood scriptwriters get through with transforming this short youtube video of transformers meeting independence day into a feature-length motion picture you'll see they will manage to finagle in subplots involving a man making up with his girlfriend he previously wronged, saving baby seals and helping treehuggers protect the environment (all while gasoline explosions go off left and right on-screen)...
Click to expand...

LMAO :LOL: exactly what one would expect, heh? And don't forget something furry and/or some cute kids, for the housewives.
 
Malo said:
But one must consider what the production studios saw in the video that made them all send frantic offers?
Click to expand...

Perhaps they see what he can do with very small budget, so that when he gets to make some big budget film, they can save a lot of money and put it in their pockets? :p
 
_xxx_ said:
BTW, was District 9 really successful? I thought it's the worst movie since EP:1.
Click to expand...

Depends on what you deem "successful".. District 9 most likely wont be going home with tons of golden statuettes, or fancy crystal awards but as far as any studios are concerned it was a huge success.. cost $30 million,.. raked in nearly 6X that in worldwide (according to wiki).
Cloverfield cost 25M, made almost 200M.. one of the most financially successful films goes to another low budget high yield flick.. Blair Witch.. cost 500,000-700,000 and made aprox 250M.
 
Cloverfield was pretty cool IMO. Not saying it was super amazing and one of the best movies I've ever seen, but I have no real complaints to level against it. I enjoyed the documentary feel of it. The only thing I'd wanted to see was the producers making the monster more of a Lovecraftian horror rather than something from outer space. But you can't have everything I guess.
 
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