YouTube Clip Wins Movie Deal

A Uruguayan man who spent $300 creating a YouTube video called Panic Attack! has been offered a $30 million contract to make a Hollywood film. "I uploaded on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of e-mails from Hollywood studios," the creator tells the BBC. "It was amazing, we were all shocked."

The clip, which features giant robots invading Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, has already garnered 1.5 million views on YouTube. Now, with help from the production company of Spider-Man director Sam Raimi, the creator, Fede Alvarez, will transform the 5-minute short into a sci-fi flick shot in Argentina and Uruguay. The feature will have a revamped storyline, Alvarez said. (More YouTube stories.)