HBO has confirmed the debut date for the new Original drama series, “THE DEUCE,” which will premiere its eight-episode season in Asia same time as the U.S. on Monday, September 11 at 9am (SIN) only on HBO GO, with new episodes premiering on subsequent Mondays at the same time.
Titled after the local slang for New York’s fabled 42nd Street and starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, “THE DEUCE” chronicles that moment in time when sex went from being a back-alley, brown-paper-bag commodity to a billion-dollar universal in American life, a moment when ground zero for the earliest pioneers in the flesh trade was the midtown heart of the nation’s largest city, New York’s Times Square.
“THE DEUCE” follows the rise of the porn culture in New York from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world of the sex trade from the moment when both a liberalizing cultural revolution in American sexuality and new legal definitions of obscenity created a billion-dollar industry that is now an elemental component of the American cultural landscape. Beginning in 1971, the show follows a cast of barkeeps, prostitutes, pimps, police and nightlife denizens as they swirl through a world of sex, crime, high times and violence and the porn business begins its climb from Mafia-backed massage parlors and film labs to legitimacy and cultural permanence.
While “THE DEUCE” is structured as a fictional narrative, it results from research by producer Marc Henry Johnson, who chronicled the rise and fall of the sex industry and The Deuce demimonde through the lives of a pair of real-life twins who eventually became Mob fronts for the Gambino family in midtown, rising to some prominence in their own right. Those tales – provided by a brother who passed away a few brief months before “THE DEUCE” began filming its pilot – form one essential strand in the narrative, augmented by additional research and subsequent interviews with other surviving participants who consulted on the scripts.
The cast includes: James Franco (Oscar® nominee for “127 Hours”) as identical twin brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino; Maggie Gyllenhaal (Oscar® nominee for “Crazy Heart”) as self-made prostitute Candy; Gary Carr (“Downton Abbey”) as pimp C.C.; Margarita Levieva (“The Blacklist”) as college student-turned-barmaid Abigail “Abby” Parker; Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. (HBO’s “The Wire”) as police officer Chris Alston; Dominique Fishback (HBO’s “Show Me a Hero”) as prostitute Darlene; Emily Meade (HBO’s “The Leftovers”) as 20-year-old prostitute Lori; Gbenga Akinnagbe (“The Good Wife”) as pimp Larry Brown; Chris Bauer (HBO’s “The Wire”) as Bobby Dwyer, a construction foreman and brother-in-law of the Martinos; Chris Coy (CINEMAX’s “Banshee”) as bartender Paul Hendrickson; Natalie Paul (HBO’s “Show Me a Hero”) as reporter Sandra Washington; and Michael Rispoli (HBO’s “The Sopranos”) as mafia captain Rudy Pipilo.
“THE DEUCE” was created by David Simon and George Pelecanos; executive producers, David Simon, George Pelecanos, Nina K. Noble, James Franco; co-executive producer, Richard Price; producers, Marc Henry Johnson, Maggie Gyllenhaal.