Sometimes fan films really do pay off. Thanks to the success of his recent YouTube hit, Portal: No Escape, Dan Trachtenberg has just landed a deal to direct his very first feature film. No, it won’t be a Portal movie, but according to Deadline, he is now attached to direct a thriller called Crime of the Century for Universal Pictures based on a pitch that he put together with screenwriter Dan Kunka (12 Rounds). The movie was acquired by Universal through Fast & Furious scribe Chris Morgan who has a two-year first-look deal with the studio.

Crime of the Century is based on an original idea from Trachtenberg and Kunka that is described as “a high-octane heist with a science fiction twist.” Not much else is known about the film thus far, but Kunka also recently sold another spec script to Sony after a major bidding war. That script is called Agent Ox and it revolves around a human spy on an alien planet.

Trachtenberg is a commercial director who is probably best known as one of the hosts of the popular video podcast The Totally Rad Show. His short film based on the Portal video games has amassed almost 7 million hits in less than two months. Will this project be his ticket to a full-time career as a Hollywood director? Either way, this is yet another reminder that internet shorts are a great way to get noticed nowadays (see also: Kevin Tancharoen and his Mortal Kombat reboot). Are you looking forward to Crime of the Century?