James Franco set to play porn twins in HBO drama
It sounds too good to be true: James Franco playing twins and lots and lots of porn.
That’s pretty much the main sell so far for The Pineapple Express star’s next project, as he steps into the leading role(s) of HBO series The Deuce, to be produced as a pilot from The Wire creator David Simon, and directed by Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad luminary Michelle McLaren.
The older brother of Dave Franco is playing not one character, but two in the “bad New York” streets of the 70s and 80 as twin mobsters exercising their power and authority over Midtown’s formally infamous intersection.
Franco shared the news with his 4.1 million Instagram fans, with the post receiving almost 48K likes.
https://instagram.com/p/6DQy9WS9VO/
A nickname for 42nd street, The Deuce was a colloquial name for a section of New York City which featured a string of seedy adult grindhouse cinemas.
Entertainment Weekly reports the series would “follow the story of the legalisation and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world that existed in midtown Manhattan until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic and the renewed real estate market all ended the bawdy turbulence.”
Simon said the pilot episode, which commences production in October, was “interested in what it means when profit is the primary metric for what we call society.”
“In that sense, this story is intended as neither prurient nor puritan. It’s about a product, and those human beings who created, sold, profited from and suffered with that product,” he said.
Series scriptwriter George Pelecanos worked alongside Richard Price on some scripts for the project. He said The Deuce would featured “porn, prostitution, pimps, the Mob, after-hours nightlife, institutional corruption, and New York in its Wild West heyday”.
“It’s a world rich in character, and a fascinating story we’re eager to tell,” he said.
Words by TROY NANKERVIS.