Sopranos Creator David Chase to Write HBO Limited Series on CIA Drug Program
David Chase is set for a comeback to the small screen. The iconic mob drama creator will write Project MKUltra, a mini-series focusing on the CIA's secret Cold War period psychological manipulation project for HBO.
About the Project
The project, first reported by entertainment insiders, will be Chase's first series since the era-defining HBO crime series. This intense narrative, based on John Lisle's book Project Mind Control, zeroes in on the notorious scientist, referred to as the “black sorcerer” who led the MKUltra initiative, the CIA's covert hallucinogen experiments that tested psychedelic substances, hypnosis, and torture on willing and unwilling subjects from 1953 until it was terminated in the early 1970s.
The Experiments
The scientist oversaw these tests in the name of national security, to combat the alleged danger of Soviet and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. 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 effort to explore the possibilities of manipulating human consciousness. Certain participants were volunteers from the CIA, military officers and college students who had knowledge of the purpose of the experiments. Others, on the other hand, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, substance abusers, and prostitutes forced or misled into drug dosages that in certain instances left permanent damage.
Creator's Background
David Chase won five Emmys for his hit series, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey mafia family broadly acknowledged with starting the peak era of high-quality TV. Since the show, featuring the late James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has primarily concentrated on movie projects. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 movie "Not Fade Away". He also co-wrote and produced "The Many Saints of Newark", a Sopranos prequel starring Michael Gandolfini, that debuted in 2021.
TV Comeback
His return to television comes after he stated the period of ambitious television series in some ways defined by the Sopranos to be a “blip” that is now finished. Speaking to a major publication for the show’s 25th anniversary, the septuagenarian claimed that he had been instructed to “dumb down” his screenplays in meetings with executives and advised against making television that was overly intricate.
He attributed that view in partly to his experience attempting to develop a show with the writer Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who finds herself in witness protection. In numerous meetings with producers, he said, they were informed “the unfortunate truth” that it was not straightforward enough. "What audience is this targeting?" he remarked. “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 continued. “And as for streaming executives? It is getting worse. We’re going back to where we were.”
