Papadopolous & Sons - Top 5 Things Learnt from Q&A With Marcus Markou

1. He originally wanted to be an actor, but after taking part in different plays and attending drama school from the age of a teenager to 28, he realised his true passion lay in storytelling and the only way he could initially express that was through acting so instead he tried script-writing.
2. He plugged his own money directly from another successful business he owns with his brother into the production of the film; this was a massive risk because if the film didn't work, he would have lost all of their money.
3. He tried not to get actors through agencies, this meant approaching actors with scripts, posting scripts through their letterboxes and finding links through the connections he already had.
4. When Marcus wrote the script, there wasn't a specific audience in mind - he felt that different aspects of the story could appeal to different groups of people. However, after receiving the deal from Cineworld that they would screen the film, he began to target Greek families and communities around the area of the cinema. Wood Green Cineworld and Enfield Cineworld were two particular hotspots. 
5. Papa and Sons is a story Marcus wrote based around himself and his family. He felt that as a young teen he was embarrassed and therefore distanced himself from his Greek roots, but as he grew up he wanted to get back in touch with them and realised what he originally thought was embarrassing is what made him and his culture unique. Each character is a personification of these feelings. 

Papadopoulos and Sons

Papadopoulos and Sons, or more commonly referred to as 'Papa' and Sons is a British Comedy that was written and directed by the independent film maker Marcus Markou, shot in a just a handful of locations around London with a budget of a quarter of a million pounds.

The indie film is based around a self-made millionaire who becomes of victim of the current financial crisis and is therefore forced to re-unite with his extremely Greek brother to re-open the fish and chips show they shared in their youth.

Starring

• Stephen Dillane as Harry Papadopoulos - Who postponed the filming of Game of Thrones for a week, just to cease the opportunity to play this role and act as the father to his biological son; a rare opportunity.
• Frank Dilane as James Papadopoulos - Who had played young Voldemort in Harry Potter and is Stephen Dilane's son.
• Georgia Groome as Katie Papadopoulos - Who loved the script and was therefore willing to lower her price for working in the film.
• Ed Stoppard as Rob - A good friend of Marcus Markou's from when we was at LAMDA, he purposely wrote the charectar for Ed to play.
• Georges Corraface as Uncle Spirous - A well known actor in French and Greece who was intrigued by the idea of Papa and Sons so agreed to meet Marcus for lunch in France.
• Cosima Shaw as Sophie - A german actress who plays an american buisnesswoman. 
• Thomas Underhill as Theo Papadopulos - who came to the audition and was almost identical to Marcus' vision of Theo.

Marketing
A variety of platforms were used to Market the film:

1. Poster
2. Trailer
3. Social Media
   - Twitter Page
   - Facebook Page
   - Youtube
4. Offical Website

Distribution

Due to Marcus' opinions on the way distributing through other companies, he decided to self-promote and distribute through his independent company 'Double M Films.' He described the film to 'have a life of its own' as it appeared in many different places that he couldn't predict.

A few ways he distributed:
- Tweeting chip shops and Greek churches to tell them his film about chip shops/Greek families was coming out; Greek Priests would announce that his film was being released at the end of the service.
- Standing in Cinemas and directly telling customers about his film and how he made it with his own money, trying to persuade them to give him a chance.
- Pinpointing every greek church in London and finding a nearby cinema for it to be in, as "where there were Greek churches, there were Greek families."

Where it was screened:

• Film festivals such as, The Dinard British Film Festival in France, The Palm Springs International Film Festival in the USA, The Seattle Film Festival, The Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece
• A historic screening at European Parliment
• It was released in cinemas all over Greece in December 2012
• In April 2013, it was released in Ireland and the UK
• In June 203, it was released in 70 German Cinemas

Critical Acclaim

Although it was self distributed and self promoted, it received a large amount of reviews after it was released in the UK. It was given 3/5 stars by various media outlets such as The telegraph, Contact Music and The Guardian described the film as "an ambitious attempt to rewrite Lear for laughter rather than tears. Its a throwback, but relxaed, sweet and funny with it: a first feature that makes an impression by not pushing too hard to make an impression."

The film recently received 82% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 6.9/10 on IMDb.

Finally, when it was released in Germany, it achieved a tally of 23,850 admissions during the first weekend alone!