In September, Kanye West turned a plain, vocally ungifted country singer into the world’s most celebrated pop star simply by cutting her off before she became long-winded — and now he’s helped make another dream come true! Previously unknown director Fede Alvarez was toiling away on commercials in his native Uruguay before Kanye, on November 6, posted on his blog a YouTube video of Ataque de Pánico! (Panic Attack!), an awesome five-minute robot-apocalypse film Alvarez purportedly made for less than $500 (embedded here). Half a million views later, Alvarez has a team of superstar agents and a $30 million budget from Mandate Pictures to make an alien-invasion movie under the mentorship of Sam freaking Raimi (the deal is presumably modeled on the one that had Peter Jackson oversee Neill Blomkamp’s District 9). Alvarez should probably send Kanye an all-caps thank-you card.
Panic Attack! [Kanye’s Blog]
Hollywood in Panic Over New Helmer [BFDealMemo/Variety]
Hollywood has a ‘Panic Attack!’ [LAT]