Greengrass, Garfield Turn Peasants' Revolt Into Modern Epic — SkimNews
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- Paul Greengrass wrote and directed "The Uprising" about the 14th-century Peasants' Revolt after conceiving the idea on the second day of COVID lockdown — his first draft was titled "The Hood" and its core architecture remained largely unchanged through production.
- Andrew Garfield stars as "Ploughman," a humble farmer who has lost his family to the plague and incites a nationwide uprising after lashing out at a tax collector pushing new levies for the teenage King Richard II.
- Greengrass argues the legend of Robin Hood was born from the crushed Peasants' Revolt — outlaw ballads that emerged afterward "kept the dream alive" by telling stories of defiance against power.
- The ensemble cast includes Cosmo Jarvis as the historical Wat Tyler, Jamie Bell as clergyman John Ball, Thomasin McKenzie as fellow rebel Alyce, and Katherine Waterston as the king's mother the Countess.
- The film was shot in Bavaria and Germany, including in an ancient Nuremberg church, with historian Dan Jones — author of "Summer of Blood" — serving as consultant on period details down to where an ox would sleep.
- Garfield emailed Greengrass immediately after reading the script, describing it as "an antidote to the disenfranchisement" and a response to waking each day wondering whether the people he wanted held accountable were being held accountable.
- Greengrass cited Kubrick's "Spartacus," "Braveheart," and "Gladiator" as inspirations for making his own "big historical epic" — a genre he'd never tackled before.
Why it matters: Greengrass explicitly framed the film as a response to modern political disenfranchisement rather than a detached period piece — the Peasants' Revolt was chosen because its themes of unaccountable authority and tax burdens resonate now. Garfield's immediate buy-in validates that thesis, and Greengrass's Robin Hood origin theory gives the project a cultural hook that extends beyond medieval spectacle.
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