Is ‘The Uprising’ a Secret Robin Hood Movie? Plus, ‘The Pitt’ Season 3 Trailer, an ‘Adults’ S2 Preview, and Late Summer Recommendations.

The Watch

Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald dive into the bizarre marketing campaign for Paul Greengrass's upcoming film 'The Uprising,' which has sparked

Key takeaways

• The marketing rollout for 'The Uprising' included a sudden, unconfirmed claim that it's a Robin Hood origin story, leading to confusion and backlash from fans and critics.

Main topics

• Marketing strategy behind 'The Uprising'
• Robin Hood as a rebranded IP

Notable quotes

"We don't know if that's true because it doesn't seem like anyone involved in the movie is acknowledging this or being like now that the cat's out of the bag..."

Conclusion

The episode underscores how marketing tactics in film and television inc

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:05) I need supports to have to clear the room. Speaker 1 (0:08) Stand up and walk. Now. Speaker 2 (0:10) Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at TheRinger.com and joining me in the studio, my secret Robin Hood project, it's Andy Speaker 1 (0:22) Greenwald! But secretly, I'm the bad prince the whole time. Speaker 2 (0:27) Greenwald it is. is Thursday, which means it's kind of a chaos menu. We can just do whatever we want. Today, we've got some Holly weird news that we're going to go through from the world of television and beyond. We were going to talk a little bit about adults, which is the second season of which is airing the first two episodes this evening on FX, which is a show. They're not dumping the whole thing. They're not dumping it, dog. And that's funny that you should bring that up. Good segue. Thank you. Because there's also some new statistics out. some new charts out from, uh, in the world of, of, of people who make charts about this stuff. That's Speaker 1 (1:04) perfect. That, uh, about the return of the weekly Speaker 2 (1:07) release Speaker 1 (1:07) model. I can't wait. That really allows us to play to our strengths with you as the Brad Pitt and me as the Jonah Hill of the podcast. Oh, Speaker 2 (1:14) in like terms of money ball. Speaker 1 (1:15) No, I mean, socially. Speaker 2 (1:17) Okay. Speaker 1 (1:18) Why? What have you heard? Well, Speaker 2 (1:19) I am off the wagon. Speaker 1 (1:21) It's true, and I love jujitsu. Speaker 2 (1:22) I just wanted to ask you this off the top before we get too deep into it. The joke we made at the beginning of this podcast is, oh, you can hit us up at thewatch at Spotify.com and thewatchpod underscore is Instagram and ringer-tv is YouTube. Right. And then you can watch us on Spotify or listen to us wherever you get podcasts. And the joke was, Speaker 1 (1:42) there's Speaker 2 (1:43) this movie called Uprising coming out from director Paul Greengrass, director of several of... our favorite and not so favorite Borden films. That's fair. And in recent years, directed The Lost Bus with Matthew McConaughey, which went straight to Apple. Did Speaker 1 (1:58) they ever find it? Speaker 2 (1:59) It was a true story about fires. I keep doing this. I just might want to... Speaker 1 (2:04) Beep, Speaker 2 (2:05) beep, beep. Speaker 1 (2:06) Back out of that one. I had a really good one of those at dinner last night, but I don't even remember what it was. Speaker 2 (2:10) Yes, you were making fun of someone whose parents had died. Speaker 1 (2:14) Now, hold on. Before this goes viral. Speaker 2 (2:19) You weren't knowingly doing that. I Speaker 1 (2:22) poked some light fun at a celebrity I'd never heard of. Perhaps suggesting that she had. Speaker 1 (2:32) nepotism. Yes. And I was informed and said she had family tragedy. So I regret that. What Speaker 2 (2:37) do you think that your kids are going to think when they're working in a lime mine somewhere? And they're just like, it would have been nice to have been a bon Speaker 1 (2:48) vivant Speaker 2 (2:49) who wrote for and about television. But my father pulled down the... Speaker 1 (2:54) I pull up the ladder in all directions. I'm completely alone. There's no ladders. No chutes either. I'm just floating above. Do you think they're going to be really mad that they couldn't even get an interview for the fourth reboot of the Harry Potter show on HBO Paramount Raytheon network? Speaker 2 (3:12) But my dad consulted! Speaker 1 (3:15) This time, we're going to get the Hogwarts Express right. Speaker 2 (3:19) I was bringing up this Paul Greengrass movie, Uprising, which stars Andrew Garfield because it has had one of the most hilarious marketing pushes in recent memory. I'll tell my listeners, my listeners, our listeners. Speaker 1 (3:33) No, no. I think that's correct. Speaker 2 (3:35) I'll tell our listeners straight up. This is one of those stories that it feels better just to have surface Speaker 1 (3:42) knowledge of. You know how sometimes Speaker 2 (3:43) you're like bond markets or what happened there? It's better just to kind of, when you're reading about the economy, you're like, I feel like I need to get in deeper with this so I fully understand the picture. This is not one of those things. So I'm going to give you a, I'm not. reading anything about this right now. Straight off the dome. Okay. Uprising, I believe, is set in the 14th century. It was supposed to be about like a farm. Well, apparently it Speaker 1 (4:07) is about. Speaker 2 (4:08) Yeah, I saw the trailer. Speaker 1 (4:09) We all saw the trailer. Speaker 2 (4:10) And it's about like a peasant uprising in England in some time. An Speaker 1 (4:17) actual historical event. The Peasants' Revolt. Let Speaker 2 (4:19) me just get through the setup here. I just want to make sure that people know that Speaker 1 (4:22) in the Peasants' Revolt, I'm on the side of the peasants. Speaker 2 (4:25) And this movie had been advertised and I'd seen people even say that it might be pretty good. And it's coming out in like a week. Speaker 1 (4:33) I think it's being released on Friday, September 11th. Oh, Speaker 2 (4:37) interesting. A big day for Paul Greengrass because he also did United 93. A Speaker 1 (4:41) big day for Paul Greengrass. Yes. Speaker 2 (4:43) And. Speaker 2 (4:46) recently in like the most recent batch of, of press or not press, but like marketing materials for this movie. Yeah. They just slid, slid something in there. It's a Robin Hood movie. Speaker 1 (4:58) Yeah. It's the Speaker 2 (4:59) true story of Robin Hood or something like that. Yeah. Here's the best part. Speaker 1 (5:03) Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:03) We don't know if that's true because it doesn't seem like anyone involved in the movie is acknowledging this or being like now that the cat's out of the bag or the Robin is, we can talk about the fact that yes, this is a backdoor Robin Hood movie and backdoor Robin Speaker 1 (5:20) Hood movie that, okay, that'd probably do quite well. Uh, specialty box office. Speaker 2 (5:25) And now there's like in England, they've, they've pulled the Robin Hood nomenclature off of the posters and stuff. Like there is seemingly, seemingly some walk back of this in any case. I love this. Oh, okay. I love like, Hey, you know, we're only tracking it like 62 % audience awareness score or whatever. Speaker 1 (5:45) Here's what we're going to do. Take Speaker 2 (5:47) a public domain piece of IP and just slap it on there and see if anybody notices. Yeah. Speaker 1 (5:51) Now Speaker 2 (5:52) this is kind of like. what happens with Tony, which is the very end of Tony. Oh, Speaker 1 (5:57) the very end of Tony. He's just like, I'm Speaker 2 (6:00) Anthony Bourdain. Yeah. No, Speaker 1 (6:02) at the end, he says he's Tony Stark. That's right. We can spoil it now. That's right. It's Speaker 2 (6:05) an Speaker 1 (6:05) incredible bit of. But Speaker 2 (6:07) I don't know. I just wanted to say that Hollywood, you guys, you guys are the best. Well, first of Speaker 1 (6:12) all, we should have prepared more for this. I mean, that's a blanket statement for this podcast. But I think that there are ways. I think there's a good conversation to be had. about ways this could have helped other recent box office bombs. Do you know what I mean? Like, what if, like Supergirl, for example. Okay, what if Supergirl at the end, she's like, and that's why I'm going to run for Congress and my name is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Everyone's like, oh, oh, this was always an AOC origin story. That's where she's from. She's the Speaker 2 (6:46) woman of tomorrow, yeah. Speaker 1 (6:48) Are there any, like, any other recent, you just did a Flops draft. Yes. I know in the big picture. Are any of those movies you think could have been saved if they just made a hard pivot right before it was released? While you think about it, I do want to say that I love the reporting on this incredible sleight of hand because this is where we are as a culture. The studio was like, you don't like what this is? Okay, what if we told you it was this? Are you more into it? And then the trades are caught so flat-footed by this that this is actual reporting from the Hollywood reporter. The decision to release this element so close to the film's debut and not keep it as a plot twist or simply begin its marketing run by saying it's a Robin Hood movie has, it seemed, confused social media users, notoriously the least credulous people alive. Quote, this actually kind of... So here's the thing. There are two wolves inside of all social media users. Here's one. This actually kind of bums me out because as a history nerd... I thought someone was actually tackling the Peasants' Revolt, which is a time in history that could make for some epic films we never see, wrote Andy Greenwald on X. The other person they quote... You wrote Barstool, Speaker 2 (7:55) Andy. Speaker 1 (7:56) The other person they wrote... I have parked on that. Fucking history pod for Barstool. I've parked on that. I'm just keeping my options open for the next renegosh. The other person they quote is this. Quote, it's a fucking Robin Hood movie? This is the industry. It's like, I mean, I imagine if you're reporting on Hollywood, you might be able to like pick up the phone and call the studio and get a little more about it. Curious about. Speaker 2 (8:22) Yeah. I would imagine Robin Hood is in public domain now. Speaker 1 (8:26) Who do you think was parked on that copyright for years? Nobody. Speaker 2 (8:29) I mean, this is what happens is after a certain amount of time, like the copyright or whatever reverts to all of us. Like Kai and Kaya could be editing a Robin Hood movie right now. That's the real Speaker 1 (8:39) Peasants Revolt. That's right. Am I right, guys? Let's do it. Anyway, just keep pumping out these Robin Hood movies, guys. But that's Speaker 2 (8:48) the Speaker 1 (8:48) other... Here's the weirdest thing about it. I can almost see the logic in this. Had... the June release, what was the movie? The Death of Robin Hood, which was released earlier this summer by A24, completely tanked. So it's not like they're trying to sketch on some like cool Robin Hood vibes that have permeated the culture. You saw his death, now check out his birth. That's not working. Right. What do you think is the health? Should we do a temperature check on the Robin Hood IP generally? Speaker 2 (9:17) Well, I don't think anyone really cares about like the real story of it. Right. They've tried to do the like the origin story. They've tried, you know, Costner's done it. Taron Egerton's done it. Right. We have had the death of Robin Hood. Recently. We've tested every permutation of Robin Hood. I Speaker 1 (9:38) think we're good. There's one permutation that I think is overlooked. Speaker 2 (9:41) Robin Hood offensive coordinator. Speaker 1 (9:43) Would you like Speaker 2 (9:44) to Speaker 1 (9:46) do some character work? No, I'm just like, what is Speaker 2 (9:49) it? Is it like Friday Night Lights reboot, but Robin Hood is the OC? Speaker 1 (9:52) Robin Hood OC, where he steals from Sean McVay and the other rich from their playbooks. Yeah. Speaker 2 (9:58) We can't afford Ben Johnson, but we can steal his playbook. That's what I'm saying. Speaker 1 (10:02) No, I'm saying that like, you know, my older daughter is 13 years old, and so she definitely has. crushes on some like actors in some of these teen shows or like Outer Banks or whatever. But her number one is Fox Robin Hood from the Disney Robin Hood movie. Oh yeah, the Speaker 2 (10:19) cartoon, right? Speaker 1 (10:20) I think that that guy is like, that guy is a sneaky heartthrob. Yeah, he has riz. Incredible riz. So I feel like we could bring that guy back and it would do better than this movie. Every Speaker 2 (10:31) once in a while, I will notice that... Not not like words that I don't understand but new words will enter your lexicon Mmm, so like you've been saying things rip and that they own a lot recently is that from your Speaker 1 (10:45) daughters? Speaker 1 (10:49) Boy, uh, you notice that I those aren't the words that I would say that I took from from their okay Speaker 2 (10:55) chats Speaker 1 (10:56) Yes. No, I I think that I think the It's also there's a lot of like That's crazy, bro. Bro. You're crazy for that. There's a lot of that and I'm I'm workshopping some of it I'm like they're like what's for dinner? I'm like I made chicken like you're crazy, bro. That's crazy. Then Speaker 2 (11:14) do you say like it's actually the most common Dinner in America? Speaker 1 (11:18) Yeah, then I pull up the charts Speaker 2 (11:19) that I Speaker 1 (11:20) put on my Peter Brandon Moneyball outfit. I'm like, actually, we can't make a proper dinner, but we can create an aggregate with chicken parts. No, the slang thing is a roller coaster. It's Speaker 2 (11:33) a Speaker 1 (11:33) roller coaster. Speaker 2 (11:34) All right. I just wanted to get to the bottom of some of the psychological motivations behind the things you said. But you said Speaker 1 (11:39) Riz. Where did you pull that from? Honestly, Speaker 2 (11:41) from you. Like from you telling me that they said it, but now they don't say it anymore. It's okay. It's not cool anymore. Let's just move on then. Speaker 1 (11:48) I made a six, seven joke the other day and they looked at me like that was crazy, bro. Speaker 2 (11:53) I can't keep up. It's because you were holding two chickens. Some news, some real news beyond that was interesting. Robin hoods. Speaker 1 (12:00) All right. Speaker 2 (12:01) Uh, we got a pit teaser for, for season three, which will be with us early next year. Um, as is the custom, the, uh, Gist of this is it's Robbie's first day back. First of all, Speaker 1 (12:13) wow, what a blow to the Robbie Truthers. I can't believe it. The Speaker 2 (12:18) Robbie Truthers, like people being like, Robbie's never coming back. He came back. I think there's one thing we don't know, is at what point in the season does he return? Speaker 1 (12:29) Oh, so you think that the first few episodes might be Nightcrawlers running wild. I do. And then the morning. I do believe you. I think that that is a, I believe you. I think that is a correct read that this season might start a few hours before Robbie's arrival. I do think that is the case. Speaker 2 (12:46) I just Speaker 1 (12:47) wonder. Speaker 2 (12:47) I mean, because like they've done. Speaker 2 (12:50) Nightcrawlers, the Sean Haddisey, Dr. Abbott crew really didn't come in until the very end of the second season. Well, he was freelancing. Speaker 1 (12:58) He was kicking Speaker 2 (12:59) around a little bit with the SWAT team. Speaker 1 (13:01) That's basically like when you record with Van in between recording the watch. You know what I mean? You just do that for fun. Speaker 2 (13:08) That's Nightcrawlers right there. It's Speaker 1 (13:10) going Speaker 2 (13:10) to be really weird if they have the first episode and he's just not in it. But I could see some world in which he shows up like an hour or two into the season. Speaker 1 (13:17) Yeah, also... Because he's so intimately involved with every aspect of the show, he's written an episode every season. He's, I believe, directed at least one episode every season. Yes. Maybe that's how he wanted to begin the season this year, so his acting commitments would come later. They Speaker 2 (13:34) have not tipped their hand as to what the catastrophe of the season is, and perhaps there won't be this season. Maybe it's just a really chill day. I actually just watched an Instagram video where you're not supposed to say it's pretty quiet today in an emergency room, if you're working there. Speaker 1 (13:48) Why? Speaker 2 (13:49) Because you jinx it and then it just becomes chaotic. Speaker 1 (13:52) Do you believe that? Sure. Television has taught me there has never been a quiet day in an emergency room. I do think that would be quietly radical. That is true. If it was just fine. Speaker 2 (14:02) Slow TV emergency room. Speaker 1 (14:05) Oh my God. Wait, I would love that show. They're like, what do you want to Speaker 2 (14:08) get Speaker 1 (14:08) for lunch? A Speaker 2 (14:08) woman in a ponytail trying to choose which granola bar to eat. Speaker 1 (14:11) Yeah. I love it. But then we are all like, is she going to choke on the granola bar? Speaker 2 (14:16) Any Speaker 1 (14:16) other addition, like any other info from this? It just seemed to be, I mean, this is the brand of the show. It's just, hey, we're back. There's going to be more trauma and emotional outpourings. I Speaker 2 (14:29) think some people were curious about whether Dr. Al-Shimi was going to come back. She's there. And she's there. In what capacity, I don't know. If she's still rolling with Robbie, if she's on Abbott's. crew or what? Like she was the secondary attending, right? In Speaker 1 (14:44) theory, she was doing Robbie's job while he was on his vision quest. That's Speaker 2 (14:48) true. But then he was like, I don't think you should be doing that because of your condition. Speaker 1 (14:52) And then she was like, I think you shouldn't be doing that because of your condition about being too sad to ride motorcycles. Did Speaker 2 (14:57) they Speaker 1 (14:57) resolve Speaker 2 (14:57) that? He was like, you have to report yourself or otherwise I will, right? He did say Speaker 1 (15:02) that, yeah. Speaker 2 (15:02) But I don't know that they were like, did you do that? Because it's, you know, temporarily we just left for the day. That was my major observation, obviously. Dr. Santos and Dr. Whitaker seemed happy with each other in terms of being roommates. That was cool. I think that's fun. Great. I think we did a great job summarizing a 30-second trailer. More news. Kate Winslet has joined a Netflix series. I wasn't briefed on this. What do you mean? Called Unheard, and it's from the Adolescence team. Okay. And it's written by Jack Thorne. Speaker 1 (15:33) That's why, okay, so there was a rumor that there was going to be a second season of Adolescence that she was joining, but in fact... Speaker 2 (15:39) It is maybe from the... From Speaker 1 (15:41) the creative minds of... Speaker 2 (15:42) ACU, the Adolescence Cinematic Universe. Speaker 1 (15:45) Right. Aren't we all living in that? Yes. Yes. Every minute of the day? Speaker 2 (15:48) This one's written by Jack Thorne and it's about two sisters on the run after committing an act of vengeance. And it co-stars Maxine Peake, who we loved in Say Nothing. Speaker 1 (15:58) Oh, great casting. That's exciting. And it's always cool Speaker 2 (16:02) when, and it helps when we like the show. It Speaker 1 (16:05) helps. Speaker 2 (16:06) It's always cool when you see a show that Speaker 1 (16:08) maybe didn't Speaker 2 (16:09) get recognized in its moment, but obviously people within the television community watched it because... Lola Petticrew currently crushing Speaker 1 (16:18) it Speaker 2 (16:18) on Furious and Maxine King. And Anthony Speaker 1 (16:21) Boyle was just announced in the cast. Anthony Boyle's in fucking Speaker 2 (16:23) everything. And House of Guinness got renewed. Speaker 1 (16:25) Really? Yeah. Is