🔗 Share this article

The acclaimed creator is making a comeback to the small screen. The iconic mob drama visionary will write Project MKUltra, a limited series centered around the CIA's covert cold war-era psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

About the Series

This new venture, initially revealed by entertainment insiders, marks David Chase's initial TV project since the groundbreaking HBO crime series. This intense narrative, inspired by the author's book "Project Mind Control", zeroes in on the notorious scientist, known as the "dark magician" who oversaw the MKUltra initiative, the CIA's clandestine psychedelic program that administered psychedelic substances, hypnosis, and torture on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from the early 1950s until it was halted in the early 1970s.

Research Activities

Gottlieb directed these tests in the name of national security, to counter the perceived threat of Russian and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the inadvertent father of the psychedelic movement, as he introduced the drug to the CIA in the mid-20th century, in an attempt to explore the possibilities of controlling the human mind. Some test subjects were willing individuals from the CIA, armed forces personnel and college students who had awareness of the nature of the studies. Others, however, were psychiatric inmates, incarcerated persons, substance abusers, and sex workers forced or misled into substance administration that in some cases resulted in long-term harm.

Creator's Background

Chase won multiple Emmy Awards for the Sopranos, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey mafia family widely credited with starting the golden age of “prestige” television. Since the show, featuring the late James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, Chase has primarily concentrated 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 featuring Michael Gandolfini, that premiered in 2021.

TV Comeback

This comeback to TV comes after he declared the period of ambitious television series in part shaped by his show to be a "temporary phase" that is now over. Speaking to a major publication for the series' quarter-century milestone, the septuagenarian claimed that he had been instructed to "simplify" his scripts in discussions with executives and advised against producing TV content that was overly intricate.

Chase attributed that perspective in partly to his experience attempting to develop a series with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who ends up in federal protection. In multiple discussions with executives, he said, they were informed "the harsh reality" that it was not straightforward enough. “Who is this all really for?” he said. “I guess the stockholders?”

“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. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."