PANIC ATTACK Director Going to the Ghost House

It hasn’t even been a week since we showed you the short PANIC ATTACK from director Federico Alvarez.  The five-minute short about alien robots blowing hell out of a South American city.  It reportedly cost $300.  I’m sure, given the latest news, that Alvarez’s next film will have a much more significant budget.  El Pais is reporting (and Film Junk was kind enough to serve as translator) that Alvarez has struck a deal with Sam Raimi’s production company Ghost House.  Alvarez’s upcoming feature film debut is looking to have a budget of between $30-40 million.  It is reportedly going to be a sci-fi film, though there is no word if, like Neill Blomkamp and DISTRICT 9, Alvarez’s first film will be a feature version of his own short.

According to the El Pais article, Raimi will be to Alvarez what Peter Jackson was to Blomkamp, shielding the director from the business side of things while Alvarez can worry solely on making the best, possible film.  The feature film is to be shot in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay.  The project came about after an hour and a half phone conversation between Raimi and Alvarez.  Alvarez has stated he does wish to include robots in the feature film in some capacity.

This is great news, as DISTRICT 9 was an excellent film from a first-time director.  Here is hoping production companies and Hollywood producers continue scouring the Internet for fresh, directing talent with the skills to make superb motion pictures.