Hollywood actor Andrew Garfield is back in the spotlight with his new historical drama, The Uprising, which was originally pitched to audiences as a realistic depiction of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in medieval England. Garfield plays a common farmer named Ploughman who leads a bloody rebellion against heavy taxation. However, there has been a rebranding this week.
The studio unexpectedly added a new subtitle to the project, calling it The Uprising: Rise of Robin Hood. "Prompts and trailers now explicitly frame Garfield's character as the historical inspiration behind the legendary folklore outlaw. Movie buffs are feeling mixed about this late structural reveal. Many wonder if the studio changed direction to attract a broader mainstream audience at the box office," a report says. Traditional folklore sets Robin Hood in the late 12th century during the reign of King Richard the Lionheart. By contrast, this film places the famous outlaw nearly two centuries later during the 1381 rebellion under King Richard II.
Criticisms are many:
This seems to be a marketing gimmick. "I have seen the trailer for The Uprising at least a handful of times and the audience had no reaction at all to it every single time. Makes sense now that they are switching up the marketing to try to get interest in this film as an origin story for Robin Hood instead of being what I thought was a historical film about the peasants’ revolt," Greg Pomes commented. "I cannot tell you how much of a mistake it is to take an everyman uprising story and wrap it in dead Intellectual Property like Robin Hood which had failed more times than it has succeeded including this year," Ghost of Roger opined.
