Andrew Garfield trades modern superheroes for medieval revolution in the trailer for The Uprising, Paul Greengrass’ historical drama inspired by England’s 1381 peasant revolt. The Oscar nominee stars as Wat Tyler, an ordinary peasant who steps up to lead an extraordinary fight against King Richard II after crushing taxes and political oppression push the country’s working class to a breaking point.
The trailer opens in the aftermath of the Black Death, with Garfield’s grief-stricken farmer mourning the family he lost to the plague before finding himself at the center of a growing revolution. As an English village buckles beneath increasingly harsh treatment from the crown, the trailer expands from scenes of exploited farmers, “forced to work beyond” what their “souls can take,” to escalated violence.
“It is time to set the world on fire,” he says as a pyre of wood is set ablaze, marching with his fellow villagers to London. Later scenes depict charging horses and vast swaths of commoners fighting tooth and nail for freedom. “There will be no peace until we are free.”
The film, set for release on September 11, was written and directed by Greengrass, who told People he was inspired to tell the story after seeing modern parallels in the anger, inequality, and desire for justice that fueled the 14th-century uprising. He reportedly selected Garfield as his leading man for his strength and vulnerability, evident in the trailer, where his character fights viciously in combat despite grappling with loss.
Garfield leads a cast that includes Jamie Bell, Thomasin McKenzie, Stephen Dillane, Cosmo Jarvis, Jonny Lee Miller, Woody Norman, and Katherine Waterston.
The film follows Greengrass’ recent project,The Lost Bus, a disaster thriller starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera. Meanwhile, Garfield most recently starred alongside Claire Foy in The Magic Faraway Tree, a fantasy film that has already been released in the U.K. and will be released in the U.S. this August.
From Rolling Stone US
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