Attaque de Panico: The fame machine dines out
The newest thing coming to Hollywood is basically the Internet’s wet dream. Uruguayan Fede Alvarez posted his short “Attaque de Panico!” on YouTube, and was immediately approached by Hollywood. From the Toronto Star:
He took an offer from Ghost House Pictures, whose principal is Sam Raimi, director of the Spider Man films. Alvarez will be teamed with a writer to create a feature film, not necessarily based on the thin plotline of Ataque de Panico!
“If some director from some country can achieve this just uploading a video to YouTube, it obviously means that anyone could do it,” Alvarez said.
Well, not quite. But we’d like to think so.
Just so we all know what kind of thing can get you a call from Hollywood producers, here’s the short:
So obviously Alvarez is talented. And since he apparently made the short for under $1,000, it seems that he might be right: anyone can do this. That’s not true, but we’d like to believe it. In fact, many of us Gen-Y’ers do.
From Generation Me by Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D:
Young people also expect to make a lot of money. In 1999, teens predicted that they would be earning, on average, $75,000 a year by the time they were 30. The average income of a 30-year-old that year? - $27,000, or around a third of the teens’ aspirations.
[...]
GenMe expects to be famous. Many kids today grow up thinking that they will eventually be movie stars, sports figures, or at least rich. These are the adults they see on television; hardly anybody on TV words in a white-collar job in an office like most kids will do someday. A lot of young people also assume success will come quickly… Given the choice between fame and contentment, 29% of 1990s young people chose fame, compared to only 17% of Boomers.
Alvarez saying that “anyone could do” what he did immediately undermines his own talent. Not everyone can do this. But we all love a success story, and particularly one that seems to reinforce our escapist cultural tendencies.
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you make an excellent point and you’re absolutely right. not everyone can do that. which is why i’ve got to hand it to alvarez for remaining modest and humble.
the opposite of this would be something like troy duffy, director of “boondock saints”. if you don’t know what i’m referring to, look him up. i despised his movie, but the story behind how it came to be is fascinating…
I do, actually. Overnight is on my dvd shelf… and yes, fascinating is one word for it!
He’s humble, but there’s nothing wrong with him saying that it was tough, but he worked hard, etc. Nothing wrong with pointing out that it’s not every day that this happens.
very true. in fact, reading about an artist’s hard work and/or struggles always make for great inspiration.
In response to another comment. See in context »