🔗 Share this article

David Chase is set for a comeback to television. The iconic mob drama creator will write Project MKUltra, a limited series centered around the CIA's covert Cold War period psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

Exploring the Project

The project, initially revealed by entertainment insiders, will be David Chase's initial TV project since the groundbreaking HBO mob drama. This intense narrative, inspired by the author's book Project Mind Control, focuses on the notorious scientist, referred to as the “black sorcerer” who oversaw Project MKUltra, the CIA's clandestine hallucinogen experiments that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and physical coercion on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from the early 1950s until it was terminated in 1973.

Research Activities

The scientist oversaw these tests in the interest of national security, to counter the perceived threat of Soviet and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the accidental pioneer of the psychedelic movement, as he brought the substance to the CIA in the mid-20th century, in an effort to investigate the possibilities of controlling the human mind. Some test subjects were willing individuals from the agency, armed forces personnel and university attendees who had awareness of the nature of the experiments. Others, on the other hand, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, substance abusers, and prostitutes forced or misled into substance administration that in some cases resulted in long-term harm.

Creator's Background

Chase won five Emmys for his hit series, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey crime syndicate broadly acknowledged with starting the golden age of high-quality TV. Since the show, starring the deceased James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, Chase has primarily concentrated on feature films. 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 starring Gandolfini’s son, that premiered in 2021.

TV Comeback

This comeback to TV comes after he stated the era of sophisticated TV dramas in some ways shaped by the Sopranos to be a “blip” that is now finished. Speaking to a leading newspaper for the series' quarter-century milestone, the septuagenarian claimed that he had been instructed to “dumb down” his scripts in discussions with studio heads and warned against making TV content that was overly intricate.

Chase attributed that perspective in partly to his experience attempting to develop 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 told "the harsh reality" that it was too complex. “Who is this all really for?” 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 added. “And as for streaming executives? It is getting worse. We’re going back to where we were.”