Sopranos Creator David Chase Developing HBO Mini-Series on CIA Mind Control Initiative

David Chase is set for a return to television. The iconic mob drama creator is scripting MKUltra, a limited series centered around the CIA's secret Cold War period psychological manipulation project for the premium network.

Exploring the Series

The project, first reported by entertainment insiders, will be Chase's first series following the groundbreaking HBO crime series. The dramatic thriller, inspired by the author'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 covert hallucinogen experiments 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

The scientist directed such experiments in the name of state safety, to counter the alleged danger of Soviet and Chinese mind control methods. He's also known as the inadvertent father of the psychedelic movement, as he brought the drug to the agency in the mid-20th century, in an attempt to explore the potential of manipulating the human mind. Some test subjects were volunteers from the CIA, military officers and college students who had awareness of the nature of the experiments. Others, however, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, substance abusers, and sex workers forced or deceived into drug dosages 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-based crime syndicate broadly acknowledged with ushering in the peak era of “prestige” television. After the series, starring the deceased James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, the creator has mostly focused on movie projects. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 movie "Not Fade Away". Additionally, he collaborated on "The Many Saints of Newark", a prequel to The Sopranos featuring Gandolfini’s son, that debuted in 2021.

Return to Television

His return to television follows he declared the era of sophisticated television series in part shaped by his show to be a "temporary phase" that is now over. Speaking to a major publication for the show’s 25th anniversary, the 78-year-old claimed that he had been told to “dumb down” his scripts in meetings with studio heads and warned against making TV content that was too complex.

He attributed that perspective in part to his experience attempting to develop a series with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who ends up in witness protection. In multiple discussions with executives, he noted, they were informed "the harsh reality" that it was too complex. “Who is this all really for?” he remarked. “I guess the stockholders?”

"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 continued. “And as for streaming executives? It is getting worse. We’re going back to where we were.”