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David Chase is set for a return to the small screen. The Sopranos visionary will write MKUltra, a limited series focusing on the Central Intelligence Agency's covert cold war-era mind control program for the premium network.

About the Series

The project, first reported by industry sources, marks David Chase's initial TV project following the era-defining HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, inspired by John Lisle's non-fiction work "Project Mind Control", focuses on the notorious scientist, referred to as the “black sorcerer” who oversaw the MKUltra initiative, the agency's clandestine hallucinogen experiments that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and torture on willing and unwilling subjects from 1953 until it was halted in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

Gottlieb oversaw such experiments in the interest of national security, to combat the alleged danger of Russian and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the accidental pioneer of the LSD counterculture, as he introduced the drug to the CIA in the 1950s, in an attempt to investigate the possibilities of controlling the human mind. Some test subjects were volunteers 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 sex workers forced or misled into drug dosages that in certain instances left permanent damage.

Chase's Legacy

David Chase won five Emmys for his hit series, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey mafia family widely credited with starting the golden age of “prestige” television. After the series, featuring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has primarily concentrated on feature films. He wrote, directed and produced the 2012 movie "Not Fade Away". Additionally, he collaborated on "The Many Saints of Newark", a Sopranos prequel featuring Gandolfini’s son, that premiered in 2021.

Return to Television

His return to TV comes after he stated the period of ambitious television series in some ways defined by his show to be a “blip” that is now over. Speaking to a leading newspaper for the show’s 25th anniversary, the 78-year-old asserted that he had been instructed to “dumb down” his screenplays in meetings with studio heads and advised against producing television that was overly intricate.

Chase attributed that perspective in part to his experience trying to make a show with the writer Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who ends up in federal protection. In numerous meetings with executives, he said, they were told "the harsh reality" that it was not straightforward enough. "What audience is this targeting?" 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 continued. “And as for streaming executives? It is getting worse. We’re going back to where we were.”