he producers called Mr. Aviv to discuss a theatrical release. As it happened, Mr. Aviv said in an interview at the sequel’s Hollywood premiere on Feb. 4, he had a hole to fill in the schedule between “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” in December and “College Road Trip” in March. Mr. Chu did not have a finished script. But his DVD sampler and his clear, passionate pitch, Mr. Aviv said, “made it an easy decision” to go in for 50 percent of the sequel at the same budget as the original film, $22 million. “There it was, in the room,” Mr. Aviv said. “I didn’t look at a reel of his, I didn’t ask around about him, I took a leap of faith because of him.” Asked if he’d ever given the green light to a film so fast, he said: “No, and really I shouldn’t. That’s really no way to keep my job.” Making the release deadline meant going into production in six weeks, Mr. Aviv told Mr. Chu. “If you can have it in theaters by February, let’s go,” Ms. Gibgot recalled Mr. Aviv saying. “As we walked out, I told Jon, ‘That will never happen to you again as long as you live.’ ” Mr. Aviv said that Mr. Chu “stood over the writers for six weeks” until his treatment became a shooting script. But Mr. Chu did not make his task any easier; rather than cast proven actor-dancers, he held auditions in New York, Baltimore and Los Angeles, seeking what he called “the 20 best dancers we could find.” The breakneck schedule wasn’t kind. Briana Evigan, the female lead, injured her leg and required surgery, forcing Mr. Chu to film around her; the rain-soaked finale had to be reshot. Through it all Mr. Chu impressed Mr. Aviv as unflappable and unusually collaborative. When Mr. Aviv asked him to clean up the movie’s language because “I’d like to be able to bring my daughter to it,” Mr. Aviv recalled. “He said, ‘I hear you,’ and took it all out.” “He really delivered,” Mr. Aviv said. “In fact I would say he overdelivered.” Finally, it seems, Mr. Chu may have the career he was waiting for. On Sunday, as he watched the box-office totals come in, he said: “I can breathe. It feels like I’ve been holding it in for a long time.”