If you were even considering the idea of canceling your HBO subscription, perhaps out of disappointment over True Detective's second season, then it might be a good time to rethink that decision. The network is pretty much the exclusive home for The Wire creator David Simon, and every time they collaborate something magical happens. Next week brings the anticipated drama Show Me a Hero starring Oscar Isaac, which looks incredible; and now HBO has picked up two more pilots from Simon, including a porn drama starring James Franco.
Franco will star in The Deuce, a porn drama set in the '70s and '80s, with Breaking Bad's Michelle MacLaren directing. Richard Price (Clockers) is writing additional scripts in case the show gets picked up (which it will), while Simon and George Pelecanos wrote the pilot episode. Here's how Variety describes the plot:
“Times Square demimonde of the 1970s and 1980s, explores the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York, looking into the rough-and-tumble world of midtown Manhattan until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic and the renewed real estate market all ended the bawdy turbulence. The project is partly inspired by the career of twin brothers who were players in the Times Square world and became fronts for mob control of the volatile and lucrative sex industry.”
The second pilot is currently untitled but will be set in and around Capitol Hill, teaming Simon up with journalist Carl Bernstein. Frequent Simon collaborators Nina Noble, Ed Simon, and William F. Zorzi are all part of the creative team on this series which explores the hyper-partisanship in Washington and the influence of big money on national governance.
Yes please. Yes to all of it.
