Pelecanos and Simon Turn to Porn

Author-turned-TV-guys David Simon (Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets) and George Pelecanos (The Double, Shoedog) are preparing to embark on a dark journey with their old friend HBO (The Wire, Treme) in the form of a new HBO series about the porn industry, though it’s not a done deal.

 Assuming HBO opts to move forward with the entry, titled The Deuce, it will chronicle the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s. Also explored: the rough-and-tumble world that existed in midtown Manhattan until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic and a rejuvenated real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Simon acknowledges that he and Pelecanos were hesitant to take on the project when they first heard from one of their Treme location managers, who'd been researching the life of a man who had been one of the mob fronts on 42nd Street during that era. "He said, 'You’ve got to hear the guy’s stories,’" Simon recalls. "George and I looked at each other and said, 'I don’t wanna make a porn show. … I’m married with kids and lawn furniture. I don’t want to go there, man. That’s dark.'” 

The full piece is from The Hollywood Reporter and it’s here.