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The acclaimed creator is set for a return to the small screen. The iconic mob drama creator is scripting Project MKUltra, a mini-series centered around the CIA's secret Cold War period mind control program for the premium network.

Exploring the Series

This new venture, first reported by industry sources, will be Chase's first series since the era-defining HBO crime series. The dramatic thriller, based on John Lisle's book Project Mind Control, zeroes in on the notorious scientist, referred to as the "dark magician" who led the MKUltra initiative, the CIA's covert psychedelic program that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnotic techniques, and physical coercion on willing and unwilling subjects from the early 1950s until it was terminated in the early 1970s.

Research Activities

Gottlieb oversaw these tests in the name of state safety, to combat the alleged danger of Russian and Chinese mind control methods. He's also known as the inadvertent father of the LSD counterculture, as he introduced the drug to the CIA in the 1950s, in an effort to explore the potential of controlling human consciousness. Certain participants were willing individuals from the CIA, armed forces personnel and college students who had awareness of the nature of the experiments. Additional subjects, on the other hand, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, drug addicts, and sex workers forced or deceived into substance administration that in some cases left long-term harm.

Chase's Legacy

David Chase earned multiple Emmy Awards for his hit series, a complex drama about a New Jersey mafia family widely credited with starting the golden age of high-quality TV. After the series, starring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has mostly focused on feature films. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 movie "Not Fade Away". Additionally, he collaborated on The Many Saints of Newark, a Sopranos prequel starring Gandolfini’s son, that debuted in 2021.

TV Comeback

This comeback to TV follows he stated the era of sophisticated TV dramas in some ways defined by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now over. Speaking to a leading newspaper for the series' quarter-century milestone, the septuagenarian asserted that he had been instructed to “dumb down” his screenplays in meetings with studio heads and advised against producing TV content that was too complex.

Chase attributed that view in part to his encounter trying to make a series with the writer Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who ends up in witness protection. In numerous meetings with executives, he said, they were told "the harsh reality" that it was not straightforward enough. “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 added. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."