Sopranos Creator David Chase to Write HBO Limited Series on CIA Drug Program

The acclaimed creator is set for a return to the small screen. The Sopranos visionary is scripting Project MKUltra, a limited series focusing on the CIA's secret cold war-era psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

About the Series

The project, first reported by entertainment insiders, marks Chase's initial TV project since the groundbreaking HBO mob drama. This intense narrative, inspired by John Lisle's book Project Mind Control, focuses on Sidney Gottlieb, referred to as the “black sorcerer” who oversaw Project MKUltra, the CIA's covert psychedelic program that tested hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and physical coercion on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from the early 1950s until it was halted in 1973.

The Experiments

The scientist oversaw these tests in the name of national security, to counter the perceived threat of Russian and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the accidental pioneer of the psychedelic movement, as he introduced the substance to the agency in the 1950s, in an attempt to explore the potential of controlling human consciousness. Some test subjects were willing individuals from the CIA, armed forces personnel and university attendees who had awareness of the nature of the experiments. Additional subjects, however, were psychiatric inmates, incarcerated persons, substance abusers, and prostitutes forced or deceived into substance administration that in some cases resulted in long-term harm.

Chase's Legacy

David Chase won multiple Emmy Awards for his hit series, a complex drama about a New Jersey-based crime syndicate widely credited with starting the golden age of high-quality TV. Since the show, featuring the deceased James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, Chase has mostly focused 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 premiered in 2021.

TV Comeback

This comeback to television follows he stated the period of ambitious TV dramas in some ways shaped by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now finished. Speaking to a leading newspaper for the series' quarter-century milestone, the septuagenarian asserted that he had been told to "simplify" his screenplays in meetings with executives and warned against producing television that was overly intricate.

Chase linked that view in partly to his encounter trying to make a show with the writer Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who finds herself in federal protection. In multiple discussions with producers, he noted, they were informed "the harsh reality" that it was too complex. “Who is this all really for?” 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."