Eva Maria Leonardou Talks About New Feature Film ‘Incarnated’

Eva Maria Leonardou has submitted to an important film contest to get funding for a feature length film of a screenplay she has written, “Incarnated.” The 50 finalists will be chosen from all over the world, and will be determined by the number of YouTube Views and Likes as well as overall quality of the competing project. The decision on who those 50 finalists are going to be is currently being made, then public voting will begin. The YouTube audience will determine the top 10 finalists, which will go on to the Venice Film Festival, and the winner will take home $500,000 for the production of the full length film, which will be produced by Ridley Scott’s Production Company.

We spoke with the Greek actress who lives in Los Angeles. Eva Maria has created everything by herself with only $331, one DP, a home digital camera, and 3 lights with no other crew or film equipment. Only the valuable help of her friends and family, as she told Greek Reporter.

“I wrote, directed, produced and acted in this “funding” trailer to get money for the feature length movie. I also did the costume design, production design, sound design and color-correction, all by myself. And on top of all that, I also edited it. And the best part? I had never edited before! I’ve also never been to any film-school; I’m just an actress, who’s in love with the big screen…My first directing attempt was selected among 12,000 other and passed to the second round of Steven Spielberg’s directing contest  ‘On the Lot.'”

The trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8y0l9I4Qf8

“Within only a month that it’s been up on YouTube, it’s been doing amazingly well, but we do need more Views and Likes, to make sure we have enough to be seriously considered among the 50 finalists. Whoever wants to support this project, they need to go to the above link asap and (if they do like the trailer of course) to put a Like under the video. Only those who have a Youtube account and possibly a gmail account, can Like the video,” continues Eva Maria.

Viewers will notice the name “Phaistos Disk” and that the company is Minotaur Pictures. The Greek actress talked about her origin that influenced the selection of the company’s name.

“My origin is from Crete and specifically from Archanes, in Heraklion County. I was born and raised in Athens, but I feel Crete is my homeland and that is why I named my company this. If with God’s will, everything goes well, we’ll also shoot some scenes at the Heraklion Museum in Crete. My goal is to make the Minoan Civilization known worldwide, through a story, in which I connect the Phaistos Disk with all these scenarios about the Apocalypse, the end of the world and the Age of Aquarius,” she says.

So, what’s the movie about? Eva Maria gave us some further info regarding the plot. “The movie is a supernatural thriller with a very commercial Hollywood structure, fast paced, filled with twists and turns. If everything goes well and this film gets distributed worldwide, it will attract an enormous number of tourists to the island, just like it happened with the Mayan Calendar and Mexico and that entire area of Latin America and this will bring money not only to the island but to Greece in its entirety. From my stay here in the United States, it was with great sadness and shock, that I realized that the Minoan Civilization is not as widely known as one would think and I wanted to try and change that,” says Leonardou.

“Americans are not familiar with it at all. When I mention the name of my company Minotaur, they think I borrowed the name from a character in a videogame! Let alone the Phaistos Disk, which seems to be something that they have never even heard of. Well, it is one of the world’s greatest archaeological mysteries, because it hasn’t been deciphered yet, and it’s time people get to know about it,” she concluded.