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David Chase is set for a comeback to the small screen. The Sopranos creator will write Project MKUltra, a mini-series focusing on the CIA's covert cold war-era psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

Exploring the Series

This new venture, first reported by industry sources, marks Chase's first series since the era-defining HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, inspired by John Lisle's non-fiction work "Project Mind Control", zeroes in on Sidney Gottlieb, known as the “black sorcerer” who led Project MKUltra, the agency's covert psychedelic program that tested hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and physical coercion on willing and unwilling subjects from the early 1950s until it was halted in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

The scientist directed these tests in the name 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 introduced the substance to the CIA in the 1950s, in an attempt to explore the possibilities of manipulating the human mind. Some test subjects were willing individuals from the CIA, military officers and university attendees who had awareness of the purpose of the experiments. Others, however, were mental patients, incarcerated persons, substance abusers, and sex workers forced or misled into drug dosages that in some cases left long-term harm.

Chase's Legacy

Chase earned five Emmys for his hit series, a complex drama about a New Jersey-based mafia family widely credited with starting the golden age of “prestige” television. Since the show, featuring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, the creator has primarily concentrated on feature films. He wrote, directed and produced the 2012 film "Not Fade Away". Additionally, he collaborated on The Many Saints of Newark, a Sopranos prequel starring Michael Gandolfini, that debuted in 2021.

TV Comeback

This comeback to television follows he stated the period of sophisticated television series in some ways shaped by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now finished. In an interview with a major publication for the show’s 25th anniversary, the 78-year-old asserted 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 attributed that perspective in part to his experience attempting to develop a series with the writer Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who finds herself in witness protection. In multiple discussions with producers, 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."