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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 8 September 2017
James Franco doubles up for ‘70s New York drama ‘The Deuce’

By FRAZIER MOORE “The Deuce” gets under matically.”
AP Television Writer your skin. But the series’ central
NEW YORK (AP) — You As on “The Wire” (set in Bal- theme — an explosion in
don’t have to look far to timore) and “Treme” (New the sex trade as obscenity
find a New Yorker who Orleans), this new series laws began to fall away —
beefs about what 42nd populates its chosen world was much more difficult to
Street has become. with a rich spectrum of dramatize.
That stretch between Eighth characters that range from “This is a tough show to do
Avenue and Broadway just pimps and prostitutes and without being exploitative,”
off Times Square: It’s now a drug dealers to mobsters Pelecanos said. “And if,
frothy family friendly caul- and dirty cops and even a in the end, we have done
dron of theaters, eateries New York University drop- that, we’re guilty of the
and other tourist draws that out-turned-barmaid. thing we’re presenting. But
many natives denounce as But among the series’ hopefully, we hit the mark.
“Disneyfied.” splendid ensemble, the This image released by HBO shows James Franco portraying If you look at the scenes
By any description, it’s a greater among equals are twins Vincent and Frankie Martino in, “The Deuce,” a new HBO where they’re making
stunning transformation Maggie Gyllenhaal as a series about Times Square in the early 1970s. porn, it’s not sexy at all.” (As
from the urban slag of defiantly entrepreneurial Associated Press evidence, look no further
peep shows, gin mills and hooker who sees adult films On top of that were his dual ed that on-screen twins than Episode Two’s potato
massage parlors known as as her ticket to success and roles, which include scenes played by a single actor soup.)
“the Deuce” back in 1971 James Franco, who tack- where, with cinematic flu- are usually each given dis- Future seasons of “The
— the time and place in les twin roles as identical ency, he interacts with him- tinctive grooming or garb. Deuce” will follow the porn
which a magnificent new twins: Vincent, an oddly self in the same frame. It’s Not here, apart from a boom, the sexual revolu-
HBO drama series, “The high-minded bar owner no small trick. helpful cut on Vincent’s tion and, all too soon, the
Deuce,” is immersed. (Its who fronts for the mob, and “I go in usually as Vincent forehead in the earlier epi- scourge of AIDS. By the
eight-episode season pre- Frankie, a rascally, trouble- first,” explains Franco in a sodes that help viewers get mid-’80s, the ease and
mieres Sunday at 9 p.m. courting cad. soft, confiding tone as he accustomed to telling the economy of video produc-
Eastern.) The denizens of the Deuce leans in to his interviewer, two characters apart. tion would spell the end of
For devotees of “The Wire” trace intertwined narratives “just because of the way “We kept them very similar back-room porn films. Then
and “Treme,” nothing more that unspool in matter-of- the makeup and the hair in the way they look,” Pele- the porn industry moved
need be said about “The fact yet lyrical fashion, all worked, even though I canos said. “What Franco out West. By the 1990s, on
Deuce” than it was co-cre- set against an exactingly would have rather done did to differentiate the the eve of Time Square’s
ated by David Simon and re-created Big Apple of Frankie first, since he’s the characters was all acting. cloying renaissance, 42nd
George Pelecanos, who nearly a half-century ago. more extroverted one. Not just line delivery, but his Street had been left to rot.
can lay claim to those ex- Perhaps no one is more And then I’d do Frankie. posture, the way he walked With that much story left to
traordinary dramas. knocked out by this pro- And each time, the actor — that was all him. What he tell, Franco is itching to get
Pelecanos’ shorthand for duction-design wizardry playing opposite me” — a did with the twins was really a green light for Season 2.
his new series: “the rise and than Franco. place-holder in the two- great.” “I remember walking
fall of Times Square.” “You watch all the old shot — “would remember Vincent and Frankie are around New York last sum-
More specifically, this first (Martin) Scorsese and Sid- what I did with the other based on real-life twins, mer when we were film-
season tracks the rise of the ney Lumet films that I love brother from when we re- with the bar that “Vincent” ing the first season and just
flesh trade from what was from that era, and all they hearsed, so he could do it actually ran in the early ‘70s thinking, This is the dream!
then called “smut” and had to do was put their himself.” a well-known hangout for The best writers in television.
what jokester Johnny Car- cameras where they want- All that, plus in two of the all types of people. An incredible cast. And not
son dubbed “strolling host- ed and it was fine,” he says. episodes, Franco is also di- “Gays, straights, prostitutes, only one great role, but
esses” to today’s billion- “But not only did we have recting himself. pimps, cops, porn actors — TWO great roles.”
dollar industry whose wares to set up all the shots, we “It’s a real case of com- everybody was welcome,” He flashes a smile as only
are just a cellphone call also had to make up every- partmentalizing,” he says. Pelecanos said. “That was James Franco can.
away. From its first scenes, thing you see in the frame.” By phone, Pelecanos not- real attractive to us dra- “This is as good as it gets!”q
Sutherland, Burnett, Roizman,

Varda to get honorary Oscars

By SANDY COHEN these four very different said. “One of the things
AP Entertainment Writer kinds of people, their dif- that’s so wonderful about
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor ferent crafts and the differ- these (recipients) is they
Donald Sutherland, writer- ent kinds of films that they can come from anywhere
director Charles Burnett, make,” academy presi- inside the filmmaking com-
cinematographer Owen dent John Bailey said in an munity,” he said. “These
Roizman and Belgian di- interview. “This shows the are our awards. These are
rector Agnes Varda are best of the whole notion the people that we feel we
getting honorary Oscars of what the academy and want to single out.”
this year. The film academy the governors of the acad- Burnett is an independent
said Wednesday that the emy espouse to do, which filmmaker whose work has In this Sept. 3, 2017, file photo, actor Donald Sutherland poses
four honorees will receive is honor many different been celebrated for its during a photo call for the film “The Leisure Seeker” at the 74th
their Oscar statuettes at kinds of filmmakers.” portrayals of the African- Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy.
the ninth annual Governors The board of governors se- American experience. He Associated Press
Awards ceremony in No- lected the honorees Tues- wrote, directed, produced, Roizman has received five films as “The French Con-
vember. day night. None has previ- shot and edited his first film, Academy Award nomina- nection,” ‘’The Exorcist”
“I’m just so pleased with ously won an Oscar, Bailey “Killer of Sheep,” in 1977. tions for his work on such and “Network.” q