In the wake of District 9 and the effectiveness of its viral campaign, studios are looking for budget-conscious, effects-skilled directing talent. Reports the Heat Vision blog, Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez, who has been making shorts since 2001, posted a no-budget (reportedly less than $500) short depicting a robot attack on the town of Montevideo. The short went up in early November, the industry took notice, and the director signed with CAA and Anonymous Content just before the Thanksgiving holiday. He now has a deal with Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures to develop an original project.

The short is cool and impressive for such a tiny budget, but it’s not the story, as Matt Goldberg observes at Collider:

Alvarez’ short is less than five minutes long and is about robots invading and attacking the city of Montevideo. That’s all that happens in the movie. The robots invade and then they attack. The end. I do understand and congratulate what Alvarez on his success and his movie is technically impressive, but the story here isn’t Alvarez. It’s the power of YouTube to create a calling card so fast and powerful that you can nab such an incredible deal.