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The acclaimed creator is making a return to television. The iconic mob drama creator will write Project 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

The project, initially revealed by industry sources, marks Chase's first series since the groundbreaking HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, based on the author's non-fiction work "Project Mind Control", focuses on Sidney Gottlieb, known as the “black sorcerer” who led the MKUltra initiative, the CIA's clandestine psychedelic program that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnotic techniques, and torture on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from 1953 until it was halted in 1973.

Research Activities

The scientist oversaw these tests in the name of state safety, to combat the alleged danger of Russian and Chinese mind control methods. He's also known as the accidental pioneer of the psychedelic movement, as he brought the drug to the agency in the mid-20th century, in an attempt to investigate the potential of manipulating human consciousness. Certain participants were volunteers from the agency, armed forces personnel and university attendees who had awareness of the purpose of the experiments. Others, however, were mental patients, prisoners, drug addicts, and prostitutes forced or misled into drug dosages that in some cases left long-term harm.

Chase's Legacy

David Chase won multiple Emmy Awards for the Sopranos, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey mafia family widely credited with starting the peak era of “prestige” television. Since the show, featuring the late James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has mostly focused on feature films. He wrote, directed and produced the 2012 film Not Fade Away. Additionally, he collaborated on The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos starring Gandolfini’s son, that premiered in 2021.

TV Comeback

This comeback to television follows he declared the era of ambitious television series in part defined by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now finished. Speaking to a leading newspaper 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 producing television that was too complex.

He attributed that view in part to his encounter attempting to develop a show with the writer Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who ends up in federal protection. In numerous meetings with producers, he noted, they were told “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. “And as for streaming executives? It is getting worse. We’re going back to where we were.”