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David Chase 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 mind control program for the premium network.

Exploring the Series

This new venture, initially revealed by industry sources, marks David Chase's initial TV project since the era-defining HBO crime series. The dramatic thriller, based on John Lisle's book Project Mind Control, zeroes in on Sidney Gottlieb, referred to as the “black sorcerer” who oversaw Project MKUltra, the CIA's clandestine hallucinogen experiments that administered psychedelic substances, hypnosis, and physical coercion on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from 1953 until it was terminated in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

The scientist oversaw these tests in the name of state safety, to counter the perceived threat of Soviet and Chinese mind control methods. He is also regarded as the inadvertent father of the LSD counterculture, as he brought the drug to the agency in the 1950s, in an attempt to investigate the possibilities of controlling human consciousness. Some test subjects were willing individuals from the CIA, armed forces personnel and college students who had awareness of the nature of the experiments. Others, on the other hand, were psychiatric inmates, incarcerated persons, drug addicts, and sex workers coerced or misled into drug dosages that in some cases resulted in permanent damage.

Creator's Background

David Chase earned five Emmys for his hit series, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey-based mafia family broadly acknowledged with ushering in the peak era of high-quality TV. Since the show, featuring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, the creator has mostly focused on movie projects. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 movie Not Fade Away. He also co-wrote and produced The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos featuring Gandolfini’s son, that debuted in 2021.

TV Comeback

His return to television follows he stated the period of sophisticated TV dramas in part defined by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now finished. In an interview with a leading newspaper for the series' quarter-century milestone, the 78-year-old asserted that he had been told to “dumb down” his scripts in discussions with executives and warned against producing television that was too complex.

He linked that perspective in part to his encounter trying to make a series with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who ends up in federal protection. In numerous meetings with producers, he noted, they were told “the unfortunate truth” that it was too complex. "What audience is this targeting?" he said. "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 continued. “And as for streaming executives? It is getting worse. We’re going back to where we were.”