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David Chase is set for a comeback to television. The Sopranos creator is scripting MKUltra, a mini-series focusing on the CIA's covert cold war-era mind control program for the premium network.

About the Project

The project, initially revealed by entertainment insiders, marks Chase's initial TV project since the era-defining HBO crime series. This intense narrative, based on the author's non-fiction work Project Mind Control, zeroes in on Sidney Gottlieb, referred to as the "dark magician" who led the MKUltra initiative, the agency's clandestine psychedelic program that tested psychedelic substances, hypnotic techniques, and torture on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from 1953 until it was halted in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

Gottlieb oversaw these tests 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 LSD counterculture, as he introduced the substance to the CIA in the mid-20th century, in an effort to explore the potential of controlling human consciousness. Certain participants were volunteers from the agency, armed forces personnel and university attendees who had knowledge of the nature of the studies. Additional subjects, on the other hand, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, substance abusers, and sex workers forced or misled into drug dosages that in certain instances left long-term harm.

Creator's Background

David Chase earned five Emmys for the Sopranos, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey-based crime syndicate widely credited with ushering in the peak era of “prestige” television. Since the show, featuring the late James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, the creator has mostly focused on feature films. He wrote, directed and produced the 2012 movie Not Fade Away. He also co-wrote and produced "The Many Saints of Newark", a Sopranos prequel featuring Michael Gandolfini, that premiered in 2021.

TV Comeback

His return to TV comes after he declared the period of sophisticated TV dramas in some ways shaped by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now over. Speaking to a leading newspaper for the show’s 25th anniversary, the septuagenarian claimed that he had been told to "simplify" his screenplays in meetings with executives and warned against producing TV content that was overly intricate.

Chase linked that view in part to his encounter attempting to develop a series with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who finds herself in witness protection. In multiple discussions with producers, he said, they were informed "the harsh reality" that it was not straightforward enough. "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 added. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."