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The acclaimed creator is set for a return to the small screen. The Sopranos visionary is scripting Project MKUltra, a limited series centered around the CIA's secret Cold War period mind control program for HBO.

About the Project

This new venture, first reported by entertainment insiders, marks Chase's first series following the groundbreaking HBO crime series. This intense narrative, inspired by the author's non-fiction work Project Mind Control, focuses on Sidney Gottlieb, referred to as the "dark magician" who led Project MKUltra, the CIA's clandestine hallucinogen experiments that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and physical coercion on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from the early 1950s until it was terminated in the early 1970s.

Research Activities

Gottlieb directed such experiments in the interest of national security, to combat the perceived threat of Russian and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the inadvertent father of the psychedelic movement, as he introduced the drug to the agency in the mid-20th century, in an attempt to explore the potential of manipulating human consciousness. Some test subjects were willing individuals from the CIA, military officers and university attendees who had knowledge of the nature of the experiments. Additional subjects, however, were mental patients, incarcerated persons, substance abusers, and prostitutes coerced or deceived into drug dosages that in some cases left long-term harm.

Creator's Background

David Chase earned multiple Emmy Awards for the Sopranos, a complex drama about a New Jersey-based mafia family broadly acknowledged with starting the peak era of high-quality TV. After the series, featuring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has mostly focused on feature films. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 movie Not Fade Away. Additionally, he collaborated on "The Many Saints of Newark", a prequel to The Sopranos starring Gandolfini’s son, that debuted in 2021.

TV Comeback

His return to television comes after he stated the era of ambitious TV dramas in some ways defined by the Sopranos to be a “blip” that is now finished. In an interview with a leading newspaper for the series' quarter-century milestone, the 78-year-old asserted that he had been instructed to "simplify" his screenplays in meetings with studio heads and warned against making television that was too complex.

Chase linked that perspective in part to his encounter attempting to develop a show with the writer Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who finds herself in federal protection. In multiple discussions with producers, he noted, they were informed "the harsh reality" that it was not straightforward enough. “Who is this all really for?” he said. “I guess the stockholders?”

"It appears we are disoriented, and viewers struggle to concentrate, hence we cannot create content that is overly logical, engaging, and demands focus from the audience," he continued. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."