'Panic Attack'

[Gabe99]

From SciFi Squad:
Sci-Fi Lunch Break: The Robopocalypse Brings on a 'Panic Attack'

In place of the disastrous 2012 coming out today, I figured we should offer up a take on the end of the world that you might actually want to see. Such is Panic Attack, a five minute short film from Argentina that shows off what happens when a fleet of giant, slow-moving automatons invade a major city. It's a fun, resourceful little short set to the most memorable bit of music from 28 Days Later that should land fans of both robots and the apocalypse in high heaven.

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

From /film:
Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Planning “The Next District 9″ From Uruguyan Hot Shot Federico Alvarez

According to a report in El Pais (via Film Junk), the film that Alvarez has signed on to make for Ghost House will also feature giant robots. He’s working with a budget of $30 to $40 million and has a $1 million fund just to fund script development. There’s apparently perks too - Alvarez, his girlfriend and also his co-writer Rodolfo Sayagués have all been relocated to new apartments in LA and given cars. Reading all of this, I had an uneasy feeling that either Alvarez has been speaking too freely or that the El Pais journalist has betrayed his confidence because we rarely hear this kind of detail.

According to Alvarez, he and Raimi share a vision of what the feature film should be and this is why he was happy to sign with Ghost House. It seems that he didn’t even keep his appointments to meet with “Dreamworks, Fox, Warner and The Weinstein Company”.

From Variety:
Hollywood in Panic Over New Helmer

In an exceptional deal for a director to make his feature helming debut, Ghost House Pictures has made a seven-figure deal with a Uruguayan commercials director to direct his pitch for an alien invasion film.

How did Fede Alvarez score such a million dollar deal when most first-time helmers make $250,000? The heat is based on “Ataque de Panico!” (Panic Attack), a four minute 48 second short film about an apocalyptic robot attack that Alvarez directed through his commercial production house at a cost between $300-$500. Watch for yourself: http://vodpod.com/watch/2461813-ataque-de-pnico-panic-attack-2009

After the short found its way to the internet and Kanye West featured a link to the film on his blog, a 30-year old who was not on anyone’s radar outside the Uruguayan blurb market suddenly found the biggest agencies in Hollywood in a collective panic attack to sign him. That created a chain reaction of activity over two weeks that led to 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.

After he signed with CAA, Anonymous Content and attorney Karl Austen, Alvarez made a pre-emptive deal with Ghost House that sets the helmer up to make his first film under the guidance of one of his directing heroes, Sam Raimi, who formed the genre label Ghost House within Mandate Pictures with Rob Tapert, Nathan Kahane and Joe Drake.

Raimi sparked to Alvarez’s short film—which offers a stylized vision of apocalyptic destruction that appears to have been made for far more than Alvarez spent. After Alvarez pitched an original idea for an alien invasion idea to the “Spider-Man 4” director, Ghost House closed a deal with Alvarez’s new reps that guarantees him a six-figure holding deal to wait while Ghost House hires a high-end scribe to turn the idea into a feature. The six-figure deal will be applied against a seven-figure fee if Ghost House makes the film.

Raimi will produce with Ghost House partner Tapert, with Vertigo’s Roy Lee and Doug Davison also be involved in producing capacities. Kahane will be exec producer.

The idea that an unknown could put himself on the map by placing his film on the internet shows how much the Hollywood landscape is changing and how hungry financiers and studios are to find a filmmaker who might deliver the next “Paranormal Activity,” “District 9” or “Twilight.”

While the Thanksgiving weekend showed that stars can still perform—Sandra Bullock has carried the $30 million “The Blind Side” to a $100 million gross in just over one week—Alvarez’s short conjured up a high concept, visually-intriguing film that can be made for a small budget with no gross players by a filmmaker who can plug into a youthful demographic.

The Ghost House deal gives Alvarez the opportunity to make his Hollywood debut that is godfathered by Raimi in a mentoring role similar to the one that Peter Jackson served in Neill Blomkamp’s directing debut on “District 9,” an under $30 million film which has grossed over $180 million worldwide.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

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