'Super Pumped': Joseph Gordon-Levitt To Play Former Uber CEO In Showtime Anthology Series From 'Billions' Creators
When you see the words Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Super Pumped in the same headline, it might be reasonable to assume the Inception actor is making a sequel to his 2013 movie Don Jon, which saw him star as a muscle-bound lughead who is struggling with a porn addiction. But I regret to inform the Don Jon stans out there that you'll just have to keep waiting, because Super Pumped is not, in fact, a sequel to that movie.
Instead, it's a new anthology series from Billions co-creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien that's set to air on Showtime, with each season exploring "a story that rocked the business world to its core and changed culture." First up: the story of Uber, with Gordon-Levitt set to star as former CEO Travis Kalanick, who was kicked out of the company in a boardroom coup.
JGL has his own AppleTV+ streaming series coming soon called Mr. Corman, and now the actor has locked down another lead role on a different TV series. He's set to star in the first season of Super Pumped, which is based on Mike Isaac's best-selling book Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber and "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." Personally, I find it slightly weird that every season of this show will retain the Super Pumped name when Isaac's book only focuses on the Uber story, but what do I know?
Koppelman and Levien, who co-created Billions and a fun, under-seen sports series called Tilt and co-wrote movies like Rounders, Runaway Jury, the remake of Walking Tall, and Ocean's Thirteen, are serving as writers, executive producers, and showrunners with Beth Schacter, who has credits on Billions, Soundtrack, Quantico, Bunheads, and more.
After a hot run in the early 2010s, Gordon-Levitt has cooled off considerably. This seems like the type of role that may appear to be one-dimensional at a glance, but will hopefully be a more complex, well-rounded character than it appears. Personally, I'm excited to see Gordon-Levitt step back into the spotlight after a few years of quiet work, and with this creative team behind the scripts, this might end up being something special.