Sopranos Creator David Chase to Write HBO Mini-Series on CIA Mind Control Initiative

David Chase is set for a comeback to television. The Sopranos creator is scripting MKUltra, a limited series centered around the CIA's secret cold war-era psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

About the Project

This new venture, first reported by industry sources, will be David Chase's first series since the groundbreaking HBO mob drama. This intense narrative, based on the author's book "Project Mind Control", zeroes in on the notorious scientist, known as the "dark magician" who led Project MKUltra, the CIA's covert psychedelic program that tested hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and physical coercion on willing and unwilling subjects from 1953 until it was halted in the early 1970s.

Research Activities

Gottlieb directed these tests in the interest of national security, to counter the perceived threat of Soviet and Chinese mind control methods. He's also known as the accidental pioneer of the psychedelic movement, as he brought the drug to the CIA in the mid-20th century, in an effort to investigate the possibilities of manipulating human consciousness. Some test subjects were volunteers from the CIA, military officers and college students who had awareness of the purpose of the studies. Others, however, were psychiatric inmates, incarcerated persons, substance abusers, and sex workers coerced or misled into substance administration that in certain instances left long-term harm.

Chase's Legacy

David Chase earned multiple Emmy Awards for the Sopranos, a complex drama about a New Jersey-based mafia family widely credited with ushering in the golden age of “prestige” television. Since the show, featuring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has primarily concentrated on movie projects. He wrote, directed and produced the 2012 film Not Fade Away. He also co-wrote and produced "The Many Saints of Newark", a Sopranos prequel featuring Michael Gandolfini, that debuted in 2021.

Return to Television

His return to TV follows he stated the period of sophisticated TV dramas in part shaped by the Sopranos to be a “blip” that is now finished. Speaking to a major publication for the show’s 25th anniversary, the 78-year-old claimed that he had been instructed to “dumb down” his scripts in discussions with studio heads and warned against producing TV content that was overly intricate.

Chase linked that view in partly to his encounter trying to make a series with the writer Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who finds herself in witness protection. In numerous meetings with executives, he said, they were told "the harsh reality" that it was not straightforward enough. "What audience is this targeting?" he remarked. “I guess the stockholders?”

"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. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."