Director Paul Greengrass has made "The Uprising", a new film starring Andrew Garfield that reframes England's 14th-century Peasants' Revolt as a story with clear echoes for today's audiences, exploring how ordinary people can rise up against unaccountable authority. In an interview, Greengrass explains he conceived the project before the COVID-19 pandemic but began writing it during lockdown, driven by a feeling of powerlessness in the face of governmental decisions and a desire to show how change can be sparked by people with little power or means.

Garfield plays a fictional farmer known only as "Ploughman", who loses his family to plague and, pushed to breaking point by a tax collector, inadvertently ignites a nationwide rebellion against King Richard II's regime. He is joined by Cosmo Jarvis as historical rebel leader Wat Tyler, Jamie Bell as clergyman John Ball, and Thomasin McKenzie as fellow rebel Alyce, alongside Katherine Waterston, Tom Hollander, Stephen Dillane, Jonny Lee Miller, Stanley Townsend, Sky Yang and Woody Norman. The film was shot in Bavaria and Germany, including in a historic Nuremberg church, and Greengrass reveals his early draft was titled "The Hood", hinting at a connection to the Robin Hood legend.