James Franco To Play Twins In HBO Porn Pilot


Fans of James Franco are about to see double. Franco, who’s tackled nearly every medium in his profession, is heading back to television. TV Line reports that Franco has just signed on for an HBO series.

HBO decided to order a pilot set in the 70s as a drama from David Simon, who created the critically acclaimed show, The Wire. The drama, which is titled The Deuce, will star Franco as a pair of twins who are New York’s sex industry porn kingpins.

According to the official announcement, the series is “a narrative set in the Times Square demimonde of the 1970s and 1980s and follows the story of the legalization 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.”

In addition to David Simon’s involvement, Breaking Bad’s Michelle MacLaren will direct the pilot. Franco has also signed on to executive produce the show if it gets picked up by HBO. It’s said the show will also explore the mob’s involvement in the Times Square sex industry, which was a very lucrative business for organized crime. The twins, played by Franco, act as frontmen for the mob.

David Simon said of the project, “We’re 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.”

Currently, James Franco is taping a mini-series event for Hulu, which is an adaptation of the popular Stephen King series, 11/22/63. When Franco wraps up the series for Hulu, he will then start production on the filming of the HBO pilot.

Seeing Franco in this role isn’t really surprising if you’ve been following his work. He often gravitates towards more character driven work that explores the taboo nature of sex. He’s been a producer and has supported documentaries such as Kink, which explored the fetish world. He also helped direct Interior. Leather Bar, a 40-minute re-imaging of the famous film Cruising. The film expanded on the themes that the original film only touched on, such as sexual exploration and creative freedom.

More updates to come on The Deuce.

[Photo by Michael Loccisano / Getty Images]

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