Paul Greengrass defends The Uprising's marketing amid title confusion

Director Paul Greengrass has defended the marketing of his new film The Uprising amid confusion over its title.

The Bourne Supremacy filmmaker's latest movie is a historical epic about the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England, starring Andrew Garfield as a grieving farmer known as the Ploughman.

Last month, the marketing campaign for The Uprising sparked confusion when it appeared to have been retitled The Uprising: The Rise of Robin Hood, making fans wonder if it was secretly a Robin Hood movie. It was later clarified that The Uprising remained the title, and The Rise of Robin Hood was simply a tagline.

Greengrass has now defended the marketing fiasco in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"Focus (Features) is doing a wonderful job with the campaign. You can't lay out everything at the start. You want a campaign that builds," he explained. "So it was their idea to entice people with the idea that there's something more than they think, and there is."

He continued, "So I think we've been a bit unfairly criticised for the marketing. You've got to somehow hint, 'This is where this film's going to go. Come and see it.'"

The Captain Phillips filmmaker said the allusion to the birth of the folk hero was always part of his movie, insisting that he didn't add on the Robin Hood lore to make the film more appealing to studios and audiences.

"I started writing an original screenplay called The Hood on the second day of lockdown. That's how long ago it was. I called it that because it had the outlaw ending, so it was always there," he stated.

In an earlier interview with the same outlet, Garfield shared that he trusted Greengrass and the Focus marketing team.

"There's no formula to getting people to see a film," he added. "However that happens - whether it's me eating chicken wings with hot sauce (on Hot Ones), or people talking about Robin Hood or a deranged horse (from We Live in Time) - I just really believe in (The Uprising). Whatever gets people to see it in a communal experience, like they've been doing all summer with other movies - that's my hope, my dream and my prayer."

The Uprising is in U.S. cinemas now. It will open in the U.K. on 9 October.