When Hollywood needs to cast a good guy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt—the Hall & Oates-loving leading man from (500) Days of Summer (2009) and the boy who would become Robin (if only he’d had the chance) in The Dark Knight Rises (2012)—is always a fine choice. But he’s apparently pretty great at playing total a**holes, too. As Variety reports, Gordon-Levitt has just been cast as Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, a self-described “terrible person,” in the new Showtime series Super Pumped.
Originally announced in 2019, the plans for Super Pumped have changed a bit over the past two years. Most notably, it will now be presented as an anthology series, with the first season focusing on Kalanick’s meteoric rise and fall with the rideshare app, which ended in him resigning from the Uber board under pressure from investors.
Super Pumped’s first season is based on Mike Isaac’s book Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber. Billions co-creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien will write, executive produce, and serve as the series’ showrunners alongside Beth Schacter.
“Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a remarkably intelligent and charismatic actor, embodying charm with an unpredictable edge,” Amy Israel, Showtime’s executive VP of scripted programming, said of the casting. “We are beyond excited to see what he will bring to the role of Travis Kalanick, the hyper-brilliant and controversial CEO whose ambition and reckless drive threatened the very enterprise he was determined to build.”
No release date has been announced.
(via Variety)