The mercurial rise and spectacular fall of WeWork, the hedonistic US co-working dream of serial entrepreneur Adam Neumann and his supernova-spouting wife Rebekah, is prime fodder for scratching that itch and is already the stuff of podcasts and documentaries. A megabucks Apple TV+ streaming series was the logical next step.
But rather than dwell in the epic slump of the flexible workspace business, which was once valued at $47 billion and is now worth $9billion following a disastrous stock launch, WeCrashed instead focuses on the love story at the heart of it.
And in actor/rock star Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway they’ve found a suitably charismatic screen couple who, despite their protestations that the series doesn’t judge the real-life pair (Neumann was ousted in 2019, amid allegations of drug use, gender discrimination, excessive spending and over-valuation of the company), can clearly see the humour in a lot of the more preposterous behaviour of the Neumanns on their rollercoaster ride.
Adam’s persuasiveness is on show from the start – whether it’s getting others to invest hard cash or provide rental space. He even manages to persuade a neighbour to give him free Chinese food and a six-pack of Heineken almost without knowing it when he lays on the charm.
The most astonishing sleight of hand by Neumann, though, is convincing part-time actor and yoga teacher Rebekah Paltrow (yup, Gwyneth’s cousin) that he’s worth betting on both romantically and professionally.
