Showtime has just released the second trailer for the new anthology series Super Pumped starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Travis Kalanick, notorious co-founder and former CEO of Uber, and Uma Thurman portraying Arianna Huffington, the businesswoman and co-founder of The Huffington Post, and Uber board member. The trailer teases the rise and fall of Kalanick in the volatile Silicon Valley.
Showtime describes the new series, Super Pumped as “an anthology series with the first season based on Mike Isaac’s bestselling book ‘Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.’ Emmy winner Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Trial of the Chicago 7) has signed on to star in the first installment as Travis Kalanick, Uber’s hard-charging CEO who was ultimately ousted in a boardroom coup. Uma Thurman (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) will star as Arianna Huffington, the businesswoman and co-founder of ‘The Huffington Post,’ who was an Uber board member. Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Billions, Rounders) and Beth Schacter (Soundtrack) will executive produce, write and serve as showrunners on the series. Paul Schiff, Stephen Schiff and Allyce Ozarski will also executive produce and Isaac will co-executive produce the project.
Super Pumped tells the story of one of Silicon Valley’s most successful and most destructive unicorns, Uber. Pivoting on Kalanick, the Showtime series will depict the roller-coaster ride of the upstart transportation company, embodying the highs and lows of Silicon Valley. Even amid the radical upheaval generated within the global tech capital, Uber stands out as both a marvel and a cautionary tale, featuring internal and external battles that ripple with unpredictable consequences. Super Pumped is the first installment of an anthology series in which each season explores a story that rocked the business world to its core and changed culture.”
The series will include all the Silicon Valley players involved. Sonny Valicenti will portray venture capitalist and Benchmark partner Matt Cohler. Ian Alda will play a junior player Peter Fenton at Benchmark. Rob Morrow will portray Apple senior executive Eddie Cue. Ben Feldman will portray Larry Page, co-founder of Google. Rama Vallury will portray Tahir Kahn, a top engineer at Uber, and Eva Victor will portray Susan Fowler, an engineer who exposed the problems and led to institutional changes in how Uber and Silicon Valley companies treat sexual harassment.
Stories of the sky-rocketing tech upstarts have been the focus of quite a few jaw-dropping films, series and documentaries. The upcoming miniseries The Drop Out, from Hulu starring Amanda Seyfried, is described by the streamer as “an unbelievable tale of ambition and fame gone terribly wrong.” The Dropout is largely adapted from the ABC Radio podcast with the same name. Author John Carreyrou’s ‘Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup,’ published a year after Elizabeth Holmes’ empire started to fall, served as the source material for the 2019 HBO documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.
Super Pumped premieres on February 27 on Showtime.
