Matthew McConaughey is heading to the 14th century for The Rage, from director Paul Greengrass. More on the movie here.
Over the years, we’ve seen Matthew McConaughey’s characters use those twinkly eyes and endless reserves of charisma to achieve all sorts of things, but an upcoming project will see him tackle on something that could be resistant to all of the actor’s many charms: punishingly high taxes in Medieval England.
According to Deadline, the project – titled The Rage – is one of the hotter projects that is getting bidders excited ahead of the upcoming European Film Market. As well as having McConaughey attached to lead, Paul Greengrass has scripted the project and is directing. The prospect of the former documentarian bringing his trademark verité style to the mud and blood of 14th Century England is a pretty compelling thought.
We have a brief synopsis for the film, which is based on a key moment in British history, sometimes pointed to as the dawn of modern grassroots radical activism. The story unfolds during the infamous Peasants’ Revolt in England in 1381. The uprising is said to have happened because of the peasant class being increasingly unhappy with footing the bill for the Hundred Years’ War against France, not to mention having to also struggle with the economic and social problems caused by the Black Death.
We imagine that paying for a century of war might get tiresome after a while, and there’s speculation that McConaughey will take on the role of Wat Tyler who was seen as the figurehead of the rebellion, which would march to London and torch parts of the capital.
McConaughey and Greengrass have recently wrapped up production on The Lost Bus, an Amazon Studios film that dramatises what was remains as the worst wildfire in Californian history, even in the face of the recent tragedies and destruction we’ve seen across the state. Originally slated for a 2025 release, we’ll have to see when the studio chooses to release the film given the sensitive nature of the topic.
As for The Rage, Jason Blum also produces and this one will likely get snapped up pretty quickly at the upcoming EFM in Berlin. We’ll let you know more when we hear it.
