James Franco is starring in yet another porn drama – it's not that long ago we saw him as an aspiring, murderous producer in King Cobra – this time, stepping it up a level with two roles, as Vincent and Frankie Martino in The Deuce.

The HBO series is based around a real-life set of twins – a bartender and a gambler fronting for the mob – who become entrepreneurs in a revitalised porn industry in 1970s New York. Luckily, the twins have different wigs so we can tell each Franco bro apart. Maggie Gyllenhaal also joins the cast as a sex worker propelling herself into the adult entertainment world as an actor named Candy.

In the short trailer, we get a glimpse at the dazzling but sordid world the golden age of porn was: making gains in a New York marred by police and mob violence and shootings and stretches in big boozy nightclub spots. The Deuce will also explore the rise of HIV, the real estate boom and the industry’s faceoff with authorities, with a glimpse at one of the era’s biggest movies: Deep Throat.

Franco also directed two of the episodes, one which he told W Magazine was the most twin-heavy. 

“When you're playing two characters in a scene, it’s this whole different thing from what I’m used to doing in movies with Seth Rogen, where we improvise all the time,” he said. “But when you're playing twins, you kind of have to think about what the other one is gonna improvise. So it’s like I would come up with stuff for Vinnie, but then I'd be like, ‘Oh, wait, Frankie should be saying that.’ So then I had to whisper to Will, this guy from NYU who was my double, like, "All right, when I say this, you say that.’”

David Simon of The Wire has created the eight episode series alongside author and Wire writer George Pelecanos. Emily Meade, Gary Carr, Jamie Neumann, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Anna Glover, Dominique Fishback and more co-star.

The Deuce premieres on HBO September 10