AceShowbiz -

James Franco takes dual role on HBO's upcoming new series "The Deuce" which has been previewed in some pictures released via Entertainment Weekly. Franco's characters, a hard-scrabble bartender named Vincent and his ne'er-do-well twin Frankie, are featured together in one of the photos.

It turns out Will Seefried, a New York University grad student, stands in as Frankie in the scene, sitting across Franco. The 38-year-old multi-talented actor also directs the episode featuring the said scene in addition to one other episode.

"That turned out to be the episode with the most twin scenes in the whole season," Franco says months after filming the episode. "Now that I look back, I do think it was pretty crazy."

Written by "The Wire" creator David Simon and longtime collaborator George Pelecanos, the show follows the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York's Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s. It explores the rough-and-tumble world that existed there until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic, and the renewed real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence.

Maggie Gyllenhaal also stars as Candy, a prostitute, on the porn drama. She is featured wearing a blonde wig and a belly-baring outfit while standing on the side of the street.

"The stereotypes and ideas we have about prostitutes and people who work in porn are too vague," the actress says. "I hope that this show, in a way, shines a bright enough light on a group of people who haven't had one shone on them."

Simon explained to The Hollywood Reporter how they approached the series, "You don't want to make porn to critique porn because that would be a venal journey - nor do you want to look down on people because that also is fairly dishonest." He added, "You really have to land it in such a way where it's a story about people and it's a story about markets - about the moment where something became legal and profitable and what happens to people in that environment when markets prevail."

Also starring Zoe Kazan, Emily Meade, Chris Bauer and Dominique Fishback, "The Deuce" hasn't got a premiere date just yet.