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David Chase is set for a comeback to the small screen. The Sopranos creator will write MKUltra, a mini-series focusing on the CIA's secret Cold War period mind control program for HBO.

About the Project

This new venture, first reported by entertainment insiders, marks David Chase's initial TV project since the era-defining HBO crime series. The dramatic thriller, based on the author's non-fiction work "Project Mind Control", zeroes in on Sidney Gottlieb, referred to as the "dark magician" who oversaw Project MKUltra, the CIA's covert hallucinogen experiments that tested hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and physical coercion on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from 1953 until it was halted in 1973.

Research Activities

The scientist directed these tests in the name of state safety, to counter the alleged danger of Russian and Chinese mind control methods. He is also regarded as the accidental pioneer of the LSD counterculture, as he brought the substance to the CIA in the 1950s, in an attempt to investigate the potential of controlling the human mind. Certain participants were willing individuals from the CIA, armed forces personnel and university attendees who had awareness of the nature of the experiments. Additional subjects, on the other hand, were mental patients, prisoners, drug addicts, and prostitutes coerced or deceived into drug dosages that in some cases resulted in permanent damage.

Chase's Legacy

Chase won five Emmys for the Sopranos, a complex drama about a New Jersey-based crime syndicate broadly acknowledged with ushering in the peak era of high-quality TV. Since the show, starring the late James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, Chase has mostly focused on movie projects. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 film Not Fade Away. Additionally, he collaborated on The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos featuring Michael Gandolfini, that premiered in 2021.

Return to Television

His return to TV follows he declared the era of ambitious TV dramas in part defined by the Sopranos to be a “blip” that is now finished. Speaking to a leading newspaper for the series' quarter-century milestone, the 78-year-old asserted that he had been told to "simplify" his screenplays in discussions with studio heads and advised against making television that was too complex.

Chase linked that view in part to his experience attempting to develop a show with the writer Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who ends up in witness protection. In multiple discussions with producers, he noted, they were informed “the unfortunate truth” that it was too complex. “Who is this all really for?” he said. "Presumably, the investors?"

“We seem to be confused and audiences can’t keep their minds on things, so we can’t make anything that makes too much sense, takes our attention and requires an audience to focus,” he continued. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."