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David Chase is set for a return to television. The Sopranos visionary is scripting MKUltra, a limited series focusing on the CIA's covert Cold War period psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

Exploring the Series

This new venture, first reported by entertainment insiders, marks David Chase's first series following the groundbreaking HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, inspired by the author's non-fiction work "Project Mind Control", focuses on the notorious scientist, known as the "dark magician" who oversaw Project MKUltra, the agency's clandestine hallucinogen experiments that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnotic techniques, and torture on willing and unwilling subjects from the early 1950s until it was terminated in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

The scientist directed such experiments in the interest of state safety, to counter the alleged danger of Russian and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the inadvertent father of the psychedelic movement, as he brought the drug to the agency in the mid-20th century, in an effort to investigate the potential of manipulating human consciousness. 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 psychiatric inmates, incarcerated persons, drug addicts, and prostitutes forced or deceived into substance administration that in certain instances left permanent damage.

Creator's Background

David Chase won five Emmys for his hit series, a complex drama about a New Jersey mafia family broadly acknowledged with ushering in the golden age of high-quality TV. After the series, featuring the late James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has mostly focused on movie projects. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 film Not Fade Away. Additionally, he collaborated on The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos featuring Michael Gandolfini, that debuted in 2021.

Return to Television

His return to TV follows he declared the period of sophisticated TV dramas in some ways defined by his show to be a "temporary phase" that is now over. Speaking to a major publication for the series' quarter-century milestone, the 78-year-old asserted that he had been instructed to “dumb down” his screenplays in meetings with studio heads and warned against producing TV content that was too complex.

Chase attributed that view in part to his encounter attempting to develop a show with the writer Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who ends up in federal protection. In multiple discussions with executives, he said, they were told “the unfortunate truth” that it was not straightforward enough. "What audience is this targeting?" he said. "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 added. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."