Ghost House has just announced they’ve signed director, Federico Alvarez, to make a $30-$40 million feature film based primarily on the success of his short film, Panic Attack, that has had the online industry buzzing these past few weeks. The obvious parallels with Neill Bloomkamp’s Alive in Joburg and the following feature District 9 are there. It seems digitally distributing your quality short online is becoming a more feasible path to feature fame. Differences between the two can be found—Neill was a well-established commercial director whereas Fede is recently out of school toying with a hobby. If Fede isn’t careful, his feature could draw heat as a District 9 knock-off. Regardless, I think the precedence of signing filmmakers based on work published online is definitely beginning to set. So filmmakers, get your work out there!

via FirstShowing.net