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The acclaimed creator is set for a comeback to the small screen. The Sopranos visionary is scripting MKUltra, a mini-series focusing on the Central Intelligence Agency's secret cold war-era psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

Exploring the Series

This new venture, first reported by industry sources, marks David Chase's first series following the era-defining HBO mob drama. This intense narrative, inspired by the author's non-fiction work Project Mind Control, zeroes in on the notorious scientist, known as the “black sorcerer” who led Project MKUltra, the CIA's covert psychedelic program that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and physical coercion on willing and unwilling subjects from 1953 until it was terminated in 1973.

The Experiments

Gottlieb oversaw such experiments in the name of state safety, to combat the perceived threat of Soviet and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the accidental pioneer of the LSD counterculture, as he introduced the substance to the CIA in the 1950s, in an attempt to explore the possibilities of manipulating human consciousness. Certain participants were willing individuals from the CIA, armed forces personnel and university attendees who had awareness of the purpose of the studies. Additional subjects, on the other hand, were mental patients, incarcerated persons, drug addicts, and prostitutes forced or deceived into substance administration that in certain instances left permanent damage.

Chase's Legacy

David Chase won five Emmys for his hit series, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey mafia family broadly acknowledged with starting the golden age of high-quality TV. Since the show, starring the late James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, Chase has mostly focused on feature films. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 film Not Fade Away. Additionally, he collaborated on "The Many Saints of Newark", a Sopranos prequel starring Michael Gandolfini, that premiered in 2021.

Return to Television

His return to television follows he declared the era of ambitious TV dramas in part shaped by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now finished. In an interview with a major publication for the series' quarter-century milestone, the 78-year-old claimed that he had been instructed to "simplify" his screenplays in meetings with studio heads and advised against making television that was too complex.

Chase attributed that view in part to his experience trying to make a series with the writer Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who finds herself in federal protection. In numerous meetings with executives, he said, they were informed “the unfortunate truth” that it was too complex. "What audience is this targeting?" he remarked. “I guess the stockholders?”

“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."