“I am not a monster,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Uber CEO Travis Kalanick claims in the trailer for upcoming Showtime series Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber. The anthology series, which also stars Kyle Chandler and Uma Thurman, is set to premiere Feb. 27.
The series is based on Mike Isaac’s bestselling book Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, and centers on Kalanick, who was ultimately ousted in a boardroom coup. Chandler plays Kalanick’s mentor Bill Gurley, a Texan venture capitalist who bets his reputation on Uber’s success, while Thurman embodies Arianna Huffington, an Uber board member.
As Gurley urges Kalanick to listen to council in the trailer he asserts, “I will always listen. But I will never take orders.”
The synopsis notes, “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.”
Elisabeth Shue, Kerry Bishé, Bridget Gao Hollitt, Jon Bass and Babak Tafti round out the cast. The series was produced and written by Brian Koppelman, David Levien and Beth Schacter.
Super Pumped is planned as an anthology series, in which each season will explore a story that rocked the business world and changed culture.