Clip from Ataque de PanicoWhen Uruguayan producer Fede Alvarez uploaded his short film 'Ataque de Panico!' (Panic Attack!) - a five-minute film where giant robots attack Uruguay's capital, Montevideo - on to YouTube back in November, he was hoping that a few people would enjoy it.

Over 1.5 million hits later, Ataque de Panico has become a viral video sensation with Alvarez receiving multi-million dollar contract offers from the likes of DreamWorks, Fox, Warner Bros and the Weinstein Company. Clip from Ataque de PanicoWhen Uruguayan producer Fede Alvarez uploaded his short film 'Ataque de Panico!' (Panic Attack!) - a five-minute film where giant robots attack Uruguay's capital, Montevideo - on to YouTube back in November, he was hoping that a few people would enjoy it.

Over 1.5 million hits later, Ataque de Panico has become a viral video sensation with Alvarez receiving multi-million dollar contract offers from the likes of DreamWorks, Fox, Warner Bros and the Weinstein Company. Eventually, he opted for Evil Dead and Spider-Man director Sam Raimi's production company for a reported $30m (£18.6m).

"I uploaded (Panic Attack!) on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of e-mails from Hollywood studios," he told the BBC's Latin American service BBC Mundo. "It was amazing, we were all shocked."

The movie Mr Alvarez has been asked to produce by Raimi is a sci-fi film to be shot in Uruguay and Argentina. He says he intends to start from scratch and develop a new story for the project.

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