THE DEUCE is still being written and that is okay because we expect a David Simon piece to be well written and the additions to that staff might just prove helpful. Not only is Simon himself writing, but from the start George Pelecanos and Richard Price have been in place in that capacity as well. Now being added as scribes are two novelists and they are Megan Abbott and Lisa Lutz. Here is a quick look at why they will prove valuable to the series going forward.
Megan Abbott (pictured at right) is an award-winning author of a number of novels and magazine pieces. But what we noted might really be an asset is the fact that she wrote works for three different anthology series entitled “Detroit Noir,” “Mississippi Noir” and “Best American Mystery Stories of 2015.” If you recall THE DEUCE takes a look at the porn industry in 1970’s NYC. Perhaps the noir style Abbott is used to writing factors strongly in the telling?
Also on board is Liza Lutz (pictured at left) who shares similar accolades as her colleague. She is strong in the mystery genre including six novels in the “Spellman” book series if any of you are familiar. Simon must have been looking for a strong, thrilling element or tone to the series that had not been fully fleshed out, but with this pool of writers he should get a good scrip
t for sure. Perhaps he also wanted a bit of the female perspective in their as well.
This might not be big news for some, but since we haven’t heard much about the project in a while so we thought we’d get it out there. It can only bode well for the series having that talent on the typewriter. We all know how important good solid writing is. It can make or break a project. For example, some argue that the writing of VINYL isn’t as solid as it could have been. A better example though is TRUE DETECTIVE. Who knows how long Nic Pizzolatto took to hone Season One of his series before it got before cameras. Then came Season Two in a considerably less amount of time and it showed that the right amount of detail in the script was lacking.
David Simon, it seems, is hedging his bets that THE DEUCE has top-notch writing going in as to assure a hit. After all, though his shows have won critical acclaim, they haven’t exactly been the most highly viewed works at HBO. Maybe, that will change with THE DEUCE and a great writing staff is a great place to start.
(Source: Deadline)
2 comments
Good to see some female voices behind the camera on a show like this that will definitely touch on the treatment and exploitation of women in that era.
From what I’ve gathered, this starts shooting in May and ends filming in October. Simon has also said that the plan is for 3 seasons from 1972 to 1986. I also saw it written somewhere that there would be time jumps in between seasons. If that is true, I wouldn’t be surprised if Franco and/or Gyllenhaal are only in the first season.
Thanks for your input. We are always eager for Simon’s work around here. His website is a great place to poke around too.