Paul Greengrass Reveals What Drew Him to Tell the Story of England’s Bloodiest Medieval Revolt in ‘The Uprising’

Paul Greengrass has spent decades making films about ordinary people swept into extraordinary historical moments, from a hijacked plane on September 11 to a cargo ship seized by Somali pirates. His latest project pushes that fascination back further than ever before, landing him in the mud and chaos of 14th-century England.

‘The Uprising‘ tells the story of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, one of the largest and most violent uprisings in English history, when tens of thousands of farmers and laborers rose up against the Crown after being pushed too far by a brutal new tax. Andrew Garfield leads the film as a grieving farmer known only as the Ploughman, a fictional entry point into a rebellion built around real historical figures.

Speaking about what pulled him toward the project, Greengrass pointed to the kind of sweeping historical epics he grew up loving, films built around ordinary people standing up against injustice at great personal cost. It’s the same instinct that shaped movies like ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Braveheart,’ and Greengrass has made clear that he wanted ‘The Uprising’ to tap into that same tradition of big, character-driven historical filmmaking.

That ambition lines up with the film’s real-world roots. Cosmo Jarvis plays the true historical figure Wat Tyler, the rebellion’s most famous leader, while Jamie Bell plays the radical clergyman John Ball and Thomasin McKenzie rounds out the rebel side of the cast, giving the film a documentary-grounded backbone even as Garfield’s fictional Ploughman carries much of the emotional weight.

Greengrass has also been open about why he sees this centuries-old uprising as more than just a history lesson. Speaking with NPR’s Fresh Air, he explained that when the Peasants’ Revolt was crushed, the dream behind it never fully died, and one of the ways it survived was through stories, the kind people told in taverns and village squares about legendary outlaws standing up to power.

That connection runs deeper than folklore, too. According to Greengrass, it’s from that same period that the legend of Robin Hood first emerged, since both stories speak to a world bitterly divided between the rich and the poor. Focus Features has leaned into that link directly, rebranding the film’s marketing in its final weeks with the tagline “Witness the Rise of Robin Hood.”

Greengrass has drawn even sharper parallels between the film’s medieval setting and the present day. In that same conversation, he pointed to a sense of “great rage” simmering beneath the surface of modern society, one he believes has echoes in recent events like the Capitol riots, even as he was careful to frame the comparison as more about collective frustration than a specific political statement.

The film’s ensemble cast reflects the scale of that ambition, with Garfield joined by Jamie Bell, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Cosmo Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, Jonny Lee Miller, Woody Norman, and Katherine Waterston. Jason Blum produces through Blumhouse, an unusual pairing for a studio best known for horror, alongside Gregory Goodman, Joanna Kaye, Greengrass himself, Lars Sylvest, and Joe Neurauter.

It’s also worth noting that ‘The Uprising’ arrives as Greengrass’s second release in a short window, following his recent Apple TV film ‘The Lost Bus’ with Matthew McConaughey. Between the two projects, the director continues returning to the same well he’s drawn from throughout his career: institutions cracking under pressure, and ordinary people forced to decide who they’re willing to become when history demands it.

‘The Uprising’ hits theaters on September 11, giving audiences their first full look at whether Greengrass’s medieval epic can live up to the historical spectacle he’s chasing.

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