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David Chase is set for a comeback to the small screen. The iconic mob drama creator will write MKUltra, a limited series centered around the CIA's covert cold war-era mind control program for HBO.

About the Project

The project, initially revealed by entertainment insiders, will be Chase's initial TV project following the era-defining HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, based on John Lisle's book "Project Mind Control", focuses on the notorious scientist, referred to as the "dark magician" who oversaw Project MKUltra, the agency's covert hallucinogen experiments that tested psychedelic substances, hypnotic techniques, and torture on willing and unwilling subjects from 1953 until it was terminated in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

The scientist oversaw these tests in the interest of state safety, to combat the alleged danger of Soviet and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He is also regarded as the inadvertent father of the LSD counterculture, 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 volunteers from the agency, military officers and college students who had knowledge of the nature of the experiments. Others, on the other hand, were psychiatric inmates, incarcerated persons, substance abusers, and sex workers coerced or misled into drug dosages that in some cases resulted in permanent damage.

Creator's Background

David Chase earned multiple Emmy Awards for the Sopranos, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey-based mafia family broadly acknowledged with starting the peak era of “prestige” television. After the series, featuring the late James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has primarily concentrated on movie projects. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 film "Not Fade Away". He also co-wrote and produced The Many Saints of Newark, a Sopranos prequel starring Michael Gandolfini, that debuted in 2021.

TV Comeback

This comeback to television comes after he declared the era of ambitious TV dramas in part shaped by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now finished. In an interview with a leading newspaper for the series' quarter-century milestone, the septuagenarian claimed that he had been instructed to "simplify" his screenplays in meetings with executives and warned against producing TV content that was overly intricate.

He attributed that perspective in partly to his encounter trying to make a show with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who ends up in witness protection. In multiple discussions with executives, he said, they were informed “the unfortunate truth” that it was not straightforward enough. "What audience is this targeting?" he remarked. "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."