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David Chase is making a return to the small screen. The iconic mob drama visionary will write Project MKUltra, a limited series focusing on the CIA's covert cold war-era psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

Exploring the Series

The project, initially revealed by industry sources, marks Chase's initial TV project following the groundbreaking HBO mob drama. This intense narrative, inspired by the author's book "Project Mind Control", zeroes in on the notorious scientist, referred to as the "dark magician" who oversaw Project MKUltra, the agency's covert psychedelic program that administered psychedelic substances, hypnosis, and torture on willing and unwilling subjects from 1953 until it was halted in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

The scientist directed these tests in the name of national security, to combat the perceived threat of Russian and Chinese mind control methods. He's also known as the inadvertent father of the psychedelic movement, as he brought the drug to the CIA in the 1950s, in an attempt to investigate the possibilities of controlling human consciousness. Certain participants were willing individuals from the agency, armed forces personnel and university attendees who had awareness of the purpose of the studies. Others, however, were psychiatric inmates, incarcerated persons, drug addicts, and prostitutes coerced or deceived into drug dosages that in some cases resulted in permanent damage.

Creator's Background

Chase won five Emmys for his hit series, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey-based crime syndicate widely credited with starting the golden age of high-quality TV. After the series, starring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped 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 featuring Michael Gandolfini, that debuted in 2021.

TV Comeback

This comeback to television comes after he stated the era of sophisticated television series in part defined by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now over. Speaking to a leading newspaper for the show’s 25th anniversary, the 78-year-old asserted that he had been told to “dumb down” his scripts in meetings with executives and advised against producing TV content that was overly intricate.

He 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 federal protection. In numerous meetings with executives, he noted, they were informed "the harsh reality" that it was too complex. "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.”