🔗 Share this article

David Chase is set for a comeback to the small screen. The Sopranos visionary will write Project MKUltra, a mini-series centered around the Central Intelligence Agency's covert Cold War period psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

About the Project

The project, initially revealed by entertainment insiders, will be David Chase's initial TV project following the groundbreaking HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, based on the author's book "Project Mind Control", focuses on Sidney Gottlieb, referred to as the "dark magician" who oversaw the MKUltra initiative, the agency's covert psychedelic program that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and physical coercion on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from the early 1950s until it was terminated in the early 1970s.

Research Activities

The scientist directed such experiments in the name of state safety, to counter the alleged danger of Soviet and Chinese mind control methods. He is also regarded as the accidental pioneer of the psychedelic movement, as he introduced the drug to the agency in the 1950s, in an attempt to investigate the possibilities of controlling human consciousness. Certain participants were volunteers from the agency, military officers and college students who had awareness of the purpose of the studies. Others, however, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, drug addicts, and sex workers forced or deceived into substance administration that in certain instances left long-term harm.

Chase's Legacy

Chase earned multiple Emmy Awards for his hit series, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey-based crime syndicate widely credited with starting the peak era of high-quality TV. After the series, starring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has mostly focused on movie projects. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 movie "Not Fade Away". Additionally, he collaborated on The Many Saints of Newark, a Sopranos prequel starring Gandolfini’s son, that premiered in 2021.

Return to Television

This comeback to TV follows he declared the period of ambitious TV dramas in some ways shaped by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now over. In an interview with a leading newspaper for the show’s 25th anniversary, the septuagenarian claimed that he had been told to “dumb down” his scripts in discussions with executives and warned against making television that was overly intricate.

He linked that perspective in partly to his encounter attempting to develop a show with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who ends up in federal protection. In numerous meetings with producers, he noted, they were informed "the harsh reality" that it was too complex. "What audience is this targeting?" he remarked. "Presumably, the investors?"

"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."