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The acclaimed creator is set for a return to television. The Sopranos visionary is scripting MKUltra, a limited series centered around the Central Intelligence Agency's covert Cold War period psychological manipulation project for HBO.

About the Series

This new venture, initially revealed by entertainment insiders, marks David Chase's initial TV project following the era-defining HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, inspired by John Lisle's non-fiction work "Project Mind Control", zeroes in on the notorious scientist, referred to as the "dark magician" who oversaw the MKUltra initiative, the agency's clandestine psychedelic program that tested psychedelic substances, hypnotic techniques, 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 interest of national security, to combat the perceived threat of Soviet and Chinese mind control methods. He is also regarded as the accidental pioneer of the LSD counterculture, as he brought the drug to the CIA in the 1950s, in an effort to explore the possibilities of controlling human consciousness. Some test subjects were volunteers from the CIA, military officers and college students who had awareness of the nature of the studies. Additional subjects, on the other hand, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, drug addicts, and sex workers coerced or deceived into drug dosages that in some cases resulted in permanent damage.

Chase's Legacy

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

Return to Television

This comeback to TV follows he stated the era of ambitious television series in some ways defined by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now finished. Speaking to a major publication for the series' quarter-century milestone, the septuagenarian claimed that he had been told to “dumb down” his screenplays in meetings with executives and warned against making television that was too complex.

He attributed that perspective in partly to his experience attempting to develop a show with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who ends up in witness protection. In numerous meetings with producers, he said, they were told "the harsh reality" that it was not straightforward enough. "What audience is this targeting?" 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. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."