Uber’s rise to prominence might have been difficult to believe even as fiction, had it not been documented at every turn by ever-more concerning reports of overreach. The quasi-legal taxi business (that likely still misclassifies an enormous number of drivers) belied a toxic boys club workplace culture where just about any avenue to get ahead— including actively deceiving cops — was the norm. We’re led to believe some of those things have since changed.
Of all that can be said of the company under its original CEO Travis Kalanick, it wasn’t short on depravity. Incidentally, that’s the sort of thing that tends to make for good TV.
Based on the book of the same title by New York Times reporter Mike Isaac, Super Pumped puts Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the shoes of Kalanick, chronicling the taxi-hailing app on its relentless trajectory, towards (and I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here) it’s widespread success, a vehement public backlash and Kalanick’s eventual departure. Kyle Chandler seems poised to play the foil as venture capitalist Bill Gurley, while the trailer also teases an unusual appearance for Uma Thurman as Arianna Huffington.
The anthology series, which is set to cover a different business leader each season, is slated to premier this February 27th. So far there’s no indication of which companies will be featured after this dramatization of Uber, but there’s certainly no shortage of cruel, cutthroat CEOs in the world.
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