Maggie Gyllenhaal Is Playing a Hooker on HBO

Maggie Gyllenhaal will play a ’70s era hooker in a David Simon-helmed drama about the porn industry titled The Deuce.

Gyllenhaal’s role is that of a prostitute named Eileen “Candy” Merrell, who works the Times Square streets and has dreams of joining the porn biz. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

The Deuce follows the story of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York of the early 1970s and continues through the mid-1980s. The long-in-the-works entry will explore the rough-and-tumble world that existed in midtown Manhattan until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic and the renewed real estate market all ended the bawdy turbulence. Named for 42nd Street, The Deuce is inspired in part by the career of twin brothers who were players in the Times Square world and became fronts for Mob control of the volatile and lucrative sex industry from its origins.

In promising news, two notable women are involved behind the scenes—Breaking Bad’s Michelle MacLaren is directing and The Wire’s Nina K. Noble is co-executive producing.

Collaborator George Pelecanos says, quite eloquently, “Porn, prostitution, pimps, the Mob, after-hours nightlife, institutional corruption, and New York in its Wild West heyday—it’s a world rich in character, and a fascinating story we’re eager to tell.”