It seems misleading. I don't think this is a 30 million dollar payday for this guy, they're giving him a budget of 30 million to make a big movie out of it. If he can make it for 20 million, maybe he keeps the balance? Who knows the details?
oh maan, 30 million is the production budget. the news http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=830033 and his cgtalk post is there ... bbc news is being fancy ....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8417789.stm Just noticed this about a guy who put a video up on youtube and hollywood paid him 30 million to make a film out of it. Not bad going for only spending about £200 on making the video. Reminds me slightly of war of the worlds.