Well, we may only just be leaving the recession and job opportunities are still rarer than working trains in the Eurotunnel, but that hasn’t stopped an unknown producer from Uruguay, who uploaded a short film to YouTube in November, being offered a $30m (£18.6m) contract to make a Hollywood film.
Fede Alvarez’s short film “Ataque de Panico!” (Panic Attack!) featured giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. At just under five minutes long and made on a budget of $300 (£186), it has already seen more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.
“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.
Mr Alvarez has now been asked to produce is a sci-fi film to be shot in Latin America, but he will be developing an entirely new story for the project.
“If some director from some country can achieve this just uploading a video to YouTube, it obviously means that anyone could do it,” he added.
Taking a look at the film makes us think otherwise.