Panic Attack!

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.

A relatively unknown producer (and most likely Visual Effects Artist) from Uruguay, Fede Alvarez, shelled out about $300 to create a video of a robot invasion in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. The four-minute short, "Ataque de Panico!" (Panic Attack) features ginormous weapon-wielding robots that blow stuff up (a lá The Iron Giant crossed with War of the Worlds).

He could follow in the footsteps of Neill Blomkamp, who made the South African-based alien mockumentary 'Alive In Joburg', and later went on to develop it into the full length feature that is "District 9".

Well, Alvarez' short film has already been viewed on YouTube over 3 million times. and hasn't gone unnoticed by Hollywood. He told BBC, "I uploaded 'Ataque de Panico!' on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of emails from Hollywood studios." In the end he agreed to $30 million deal with Sam "Spiderman" Raimi's Ghost House Pictures.

The picture will be a sci-fi thriller set in Argentina and Uruguay, although it won't be a high budget remake of 'Panic Attack'. Alvarez says he will start from scratch.

Here's the amazing video that made him rich.