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The acclaimed creator is set for a comeback to television. The iconic mob drama creator is scripting MKUltra, a mini-series centered around the CIA's secret Cold War period psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

Exploring the Series

The project, first reported by industry sources, marks David Chase's first series since the era-defining HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, based on John Lisle's non-fiction work Project Mind Control, zeroes in on Sidney Gottlieb, known as the “black sorcerer” who led the MKUltra initiative, the CIA's covert hallucinogen experiments that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and torture on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from 1953 until it was terminated in the early 1970s.

Research Activities

Gottlieb oversaw such experiments in the name of national security, to counter the perceived threat of Russian and Chinese mind control methods. He is also regarded as the accidental pioneer of the psychedelic movement, as he brought the substance to the CIA in the mid-20th century, in an attempt to explore the possibilities of controlling the human mind. Some test subjects were volunteers from the CIA, military officers and university attendees who had awareness of the nature of the studies. Additional subjects, however, were mental patients, prisoners, drug addicts, and prostitutes coerced or deceived into substance administration that in some cases left long-term harm.

Chase's Legacy

Chase won multiple Emmy Awards for the Sopranos, a complex drama about a New Jersey mafia family widely credited with starting the golden age of high-quality TV. After the series, featuring the deceased James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, Chase 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 starring Michael Gandolfini, that premiered in 2021.

TV Comeback

This comeback to TV comes after he declared the era of sophisticated television series in some ways shaped by his show to be a “blip” that is now over. In an interview with a major publication for the show’s 25th anniversary, the septuagenarian asserted that he had been told to “dumb down” his screenplays in discussions with studio heads and advised against making TV content that was too complex.

Chase attributed that perspective in part to his experience trying to make a show with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who finds herself in federal protection. In numerous meetings with producers, he noted, they were told “the unfortunate truth” that it was not straightforward enough. "What audience is this targeting?" 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 added. “And as for streaming executives? It is getting worse. We’re going back to where we were.”