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David Chase is making a return to the small screen. The iconic mob drama visionary is scripting Project MKUltra, a limited series focusing on the Central Intelligence Agency's covert Cold War period psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

Exploring the Series

This new venture, initially revealed by entertainment insiders, will be David Chase's first series since the groundbreaking HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, based on John Lisle's book "Project Mind Control", zeroes in on Sidney Gottlieb, known as the “black sorcerer” who oversaw the MKUltra initiative, the CIA's covert psychedelic program that tested hallucinogenic drugs, hypnotic techniques, and physical coercion on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from the early 1950s until it was terminated in 1973.

Research Activities

Gottlieb directed such experiments in the interest of state safety, to combat the perceived threat of Russian and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He is also regarded as the inadvertent father of the psychedelic movement, as he introduced the substance to the CIA in the 1950s, in an effort to investigate the potential of controlling the human mind. Some test subjects were willing individuals from the agency, armed forces personnel and college students who had knowledge of the purpose of the studies. Additional subjects, on the other hand, were mental patients, incarcerated persons, substance abusers, and sex workers forced or misled into drug dosages that in some cases left permanent damage.

Chase's Legacy

Chase earned 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 deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has primarily concentrated on feature films. He wrote, directed and produced the 2012 film "Not Fade Away". He also co-wrote and produced The Many Saints of Newark, a Sopranos prequel featuring Michael Gandolfini, that debuted in 2021.

Return to Television

This comeback to television follows he stated the era of sophisticated TV dramas in part defined by his show to be a “blip” that is now finished. In an interview with a major publication for the show’s 25th anniversary, the septuagenarian claimed that he had been told to “dumb down” his scripts in discussions with studio heads and advised against making television that was too complex.

Chase attributed that perspective in part to his experience trying to make a series with the writer Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who ends up in federal protection. In multiple discussions with producers, he said, they were informed “the unfortunate truth” that it was not straightforward enough. "What audience is this targeting?" he remarked. “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. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."