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David Chase is set for a return to the small screen. The iconic mob drama creator is scripting MKUltra, a limited series centered around the CIA's secret Cold War period mind control program for HBO.

About the Series

The project, initially revealed by industry sources, marks David Chase's first series following the era-defining HBO crime series. The dramatic thriller, inspired by the author's book "Project Mind Control", focuses on the notorious scientist, known as the “black sorcerer” who led the MKUltra initiative, the CIA's clandestine psychedelic program that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnotic techniques, and physical coercion on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from the early 1950s until it was terminated in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

The scientist directed such experiments in the interest of national security, to counter the alleged danger of Russian and Chinese mind control methods. He's also known as the inadvertent father of the LSD counterculture, as he introduced the drug to the agency in the 1950s, in an attempt to explore the potential of controlling human consciousness. Certain participants were volunteers from the CIA, armed forces personnel and college students who had awareness of the purpose of the experiments. Others, however, were psychiatric inmates, incarcerated persons, substance abusers, and sex workers coerced or deceived into substance administration that in some cases left long-term harm.

Chase's Legacy

Chase won multiple Emmy Awards for his hit series, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey-based crime syndicate broadly acknowledged with starting the golden age of high-quality TV. Since the show, starring the late James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, the creator has primarily concentrated on movie projects. He wrote, directed and produced the 2012 movie Not Fade Away. He also co-wrote and produced "The Many Saints of Newark", a prequel to The Sopranos featuring Michael Gandolfini, that debuted in 2021.

TV Comeback

This comeback to TV follows he stated the era of sophisticated television series in some ways shaped by the Sopranos to be a “blip” that is now over. In an interview with a leading newspaper for the show’s 25th anniversary, the 78-year-old claimed that he had been told to "simplify" his screenplays in meetings with executives and warned against making television that was too complex.

Chase linked 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 multiple discussions with executives, he noted, they were informed “the unfortunate truth” that it was too complex. “Who is this all really for?” he remarked. "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 added. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."