Sopranos Creator David Chase to Write HBO Limited Series on CIA Drug Program
The acclaimed creator is making a return to television. The Sopranos creator is scripting MKUltra, a mini-series focusing on the Central Intelligence Agency's secret Cold War period psychological manipulation project for HBO.
About the Series
This new venture, first reported by entertainment insiders, marks David Chase's initial TV project since the groundbreaking HBO crime series. The dramatic thriller, based on the author's non-fiction work Project Mind Control, zeroes in on Sidney Gottlieb, referred to as the "dark magician" who led Project MKUltra, the agency's covert hallucinogen experiments that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and physical coercion on willing and unwilling subjects from 1953 until it was halted in the early 1970s.
The Experiments
The scientist oversaw such experiments in the name of national security, to counter the perceived threat of Russian and Chinese mind control methods. He's also known as the inadvertent father of the LSD counterculture, as he brought the substance to the CIA in the 1950s, in an effort to investigate the possibilities of controlling human consciousness. Certain participants were willing individuals from the agency, military officers and college students who had knowledge of the nature of the studies. Others, on the other hand, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, substance abusers, and sex workers coerced or deceived into substance administration that in certain instances resulted in long-term harm.
Chase's Legacy
Chase earned multiple Emmy Awards for his hit series, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey-based crime syndicate broadly acknowledged with ushering in the peak era of high-quality TV. After the series, starring the late James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, the creator has mostly focused on feature films. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 film "Not Fade Away". Additionally, he collaborated on The Many Saints of Newark, a Sopranos prequel featuring Michael Gandolfini, that debuted in 2021.
Return to Television
This comeback to TV comes after he declared the period of sophisticated TV dramas in part defined by his show to be a “blip” that is now over. In an interview with a major publication for the show’s 25th anniversary, the 78-year-old claimed that he had been told to "simplify" his screenplays in meetings with executives and warned against producing television that was too complex.
He linked that view in partly to his encounter attempting to develop a series with the writer Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who finds herself in witness protection. In numerous meetings with executives, he noted, they were told "the harsh reality" that it was not straightforward enough. “Who is this all really for?” he said. "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 added. “And as for streaming executives? It is getting worse. We’re going back to where we were.”
