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The acclaimed creator is making a comeback to television. The Sopranos visionary will write Project MKUltra, a mini-series focusing on the CIA's covert cold war-era psychological manipulation project for HBO.

Exploring the Project

The project, first reported by industry sources, marks David Chase's first series following the era-defining HBO crime series. The dramatic thriller, inspired by John Lisle's book Project Mind Control, focuses on the notorious scientist, referred to as the “black sorcerer” who led the MKUltra initiative, the agency's covert hallucinogen experiments that administered psychedelic substances, hypnotic techniques, and torture on willing and unwilling subjects from 1953 until it was halted in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

The scientist directed these tests in the interest of national security, to combat the alleged danger of Soviet and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the accidental pioneer of the LSD counterculture, as he brought the drug to the agency in the 1950s, in an attempt to explore the possibilities of manipulating the human mind. Certain participants were willing individuals from the agency, military officers and university attendees who had awareness of the nature of the studies. Additional subjects, however, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, substance abusers, and sex workers forced or deceived into substance administration that in certain instances resulted in permanent damage.

Creator's Background

David Chase won five Emmys for the Sopranos, a complex drama about a New Jersey-based crime syndicate widely credited with ushering in the golden age of high-quality TV. After the series, starring the deceased James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, the creator has primarily concentrated on feature films. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 film "Not Fade Away". He also co-wrote and produced "The Many Saints of Newark", a Sopranos prequel featuring Gandolfini’s son, that premiered in 2021.

Return to Television

This comeback to television follows he declared the period of ambitious TV dramas in some ways defined by the Sopranos to be a “blip” that is now over. Speaking to a leading newspaper for the series' quarter-century milestone, the septuagenarian asserted that he had been instructed to “dumb down” his scripts in discussions with studio heads and warned against producing television that was too complex.

Chase attributed that perspective in partly to his encounter trying to make a series with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who ends up in federal protection. In multiple discussions with executives, he said, they were informed "the harsh reality" that it was not straightforward enough. "What audience is this targeting?" he remarked. "Presumably, the investors?"

"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 added. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."