The Lost Bus director’s next film lands major stars for ‘chaotic’ historical thriller
The director of one of the biggest streaming films of the year has already lined up his next project and he’s amassing a stellar cast
The Lost Bus director Paul Greengrass has added five major new names to the cast of his next project.
The filmmaker best known for the Bourne films and Captain Phillips released his new survival thriller about the California Camp Fire of 2018 on Apple TV+ earlier this month.
Starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera as a bus driver and teacher who saved 22 children during the disaster, it quickly became a hit with subscribers and is still currently the number one film on the streaming platform over two weeks after its release.
Greengrass has now added five actors to the cast of his next project, The Uprising, about the peasants’ revolt against the young King Richard II.
Andrew Garfield will lead the rebellion against the tyrannical English monarch, who faced an army formed to fight against socioeconomic inequality across his kingdom in 1381.
70-year-old director Greengrass has now added Jamie Bell (Half Man), Jonny Lee Miller (The Crown), Cosmo Jarvis (Shogun), Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit) and Woody Norman (C'Mon C'Mon) to the cast.
Along with Garfield, Fantastic Beasts star Katherine Waterston was also previously announced. Production on the film is currently underway in Germany.
Speaking to the Times newspaper, Greengrass alluded to The Uprising feeling especially timely despite being set in the 14th Century.
He drew a comparison between the peasants’ revolt and the Capitol insurrection in January 2021, claiming both uprisings were motivated by “rage, powerlessness, the sense the system’s rigged against them, dark conspiracies in far-off places that they’ve been locked out of.”
Greengrass added the political climate currently feels “very worrying”.
“Oh, it’s warming up in all ways. Politically, it’s hot. We’re in a hot phase,” he added. “It’s 100 percent more disrupted and chaotic now - disturbingly so.
"Something is badly broken, isn’t it? I’m sadly highly grown-up now, but I find it very worrying and it’s going to get worse before it gets better."
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Despite the 2020s proving to be a political minefield so far, he’s remaining positive about the future thanks to the advancement of AI and other new technology that will “kick in and ameliorate the disruptions”.
"And we’ll finally get growth,” he predicted. “Because that’s been the biggest problem since the crash of 2008.
“But it’s not going to get better tomorrow. There will be more danger.”
The Lost Bus is available to stream on Apple TV+. A release date for The Uprising has not yet been confirmed.