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

The acclaimed creator is making a return to television. The iconic mob drama creator will write MKUltra, a mini-series centered around the CIA's secret Cold War period psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

Exploring the Project

The project, initially revealed by industry sources, will be Chase's first series since the era-defining HBO mob drama. This intense narrative, based on the author's book Project Mind Control, zeroes in on the notorious scientist, known as the “black sorcerer” who oversaw Project MKUltra, the agency's clandestine hallucinogen experiments that tested hallucinogenic drugs, hypnotic techniques, and torture on willing and unwilling subjects from 1953 until it was halted in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

Gottlieb directed such experiments in the name of national security, to combat the perceived threat of Soviet and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the inadvertent father of the psychedelic movement, as he introduced the substance to the agency in the mid-20th century, in an effort to explore the potential of manipulating the human mind. Certain participants were willing individuals from the agency, armed forces personnel and university attendees who had awareness of the nature of the experiments. Additional subjects, however, were mental patients, prisoners, substance abusers, and prostitutes coerced or deceived into drug dosages that in some cases resulted in long-term harm.

Creator's Background

David Chase earned five Emmys for his hit series, a complex drama about a New Jersey mafia family widely credited with ushering in the peak era of “prestige” television. Since the show, featuring the deceased James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, Chase has primarily concentrated on movie projects. He wrote, directed and produced the 2012 movie Not Fade Away. He also co-wrote and produced "The Many Saints of Newark", a Sopranos prequel starring Gandolfini’s son, that premiered in 2021.

TV Comeback

His return to TV comes after he stated the period of sophisticated TV dramas in some ways shaped by his show to be a "temporary phase" that is now finished. In an interview with a major publication for the series' quarter-century milestone, the septuagenarian asserted that he had been told to "simplify" his scripts in discussions with studio heads and warned against making television that was overly intricate.

He linked that perspective in partly to his encounter attempting to develop a series with the writer Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who finds herself in witness protection. In numerous meetings with producers, he said, they were informed “the unfortunate truth” that it was too complex. “Who is this all really for?” he remarked. "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.”