An inside look into the ongoing battle
Showtime has unveiled the official trailer for their upcoming limited series Super Pumped, which is all about the rise and fall of Travis Kalanick. Kalanick was the co-founder and former CEO of ride-hailing service Uber that brought a massive change to the world of taxi servicing.
The new series, created by Brian Koppelman and David Levien has Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing the role of the charismatic and cunning Kalanick.
About Kalanick
Kalanick, 43, started Uber along with Garret Camp in 2009 and transformed the startup into a power player in the following years. In 2010, he became the chief executive and was the major reason why the company became a behemoth.
However, his downfall began in 2017 when a former engineer alleged publicly that she underwent sexual harassment at Uber and blamed the managers for not doing anything about it. Then came a video showing Kalanick criticizing a driver who questioned him for falling wages.
He resigned in 2017 and by 2019, severed all ties with the company. He sold more than $2 billion worth of his shares, and said that he was proud of all that the company achieved and will cheer on from the sidelines.
The trailer
Gordon-Levitt has given an intense and ruthless CEO with a devil-may-care attitude in Super Pumped. However, it doesn’t take long that the man is a tyrant, and is not using his marketing brilliance with ethics. The series stars Uma Thurman as Arianna Huffington, the co-founder of The Huffington Post, who has a seat in Uber’s board of directors. The show also stars Kyle Chandler as Bill Gurley, an early investor in the company.
Super Pumped will be part of a number of anthology series by Showtime that tells the tale of popular startups and the creative geniuses behind it. The series will premiere on the network on February 27.
Super Pumped is being eagerly awaited by the viewers.