After coming forward with her experiences at Uber, Susan J. Fowler has teamed with a production company to take her story to cinemas. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fowler is working with Hidden Figures' Allison Schroeder on the script, which the trade publication describes as a mashup of Erin Brockovich and The Social Network. In other words, it's bound to be awards season gold for anyone involved.
Earlier this year, Fowler documented her experiences working at the ride-hailing service in a blog post titled, "Reflecting On One Very, Very Strange Year At Uber." Many see Fowler's exposé as a watershed moment for sexual harassment, sexism, and general gender issues in Silicon Valley. After her post went live, Uber faced a barrage of similar accounts and faced controversy after controversy, which led to several internal investigations and the eventual resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick.
"I felt like I was standing up for everyone else that I was seeing at Uber who was mistreated. It was an extremely demoralising environment," Fowler recently told The New York Times. "I would see people who would get harassed or made fun of or bullied and they would go report it, and they would just get ground down by upper management and H.R."
The film's working title is Disruptors, which is certainly an accurate way to describe Fowler's actions and the ensuing fallout. The film is still in its nascent stages, so aside from the production team, the project hasn't had any stars attached to it just yet. It is notable that everyone that's involved thus far is female. Along with Schroeder and Fowler, Kristin Burr, who has production credits at Disney, is producing.