🔗 Share this article The Sopranos Creator David Chase to Write HBO Limited Series on CIA Drug Program The acclaimed creator is set for a comeback to television. The Sopranos creator will write Project MKUltra, a limited series focusing on the Central Intelligence Agency's secret Cold War period mind control program for the premium network. Exploring the Project The project, initially revealed by entertainment insiders, will be David Chase's first series since the groundbreaking HBO crime series. This intense narrative, inspired by the author's non-fiction work Project Mind Control, zeroes in on the notorious scientist, known as the “black sorcerer” who oversaw Project MKUltra, the CIA's covert hallucinogen experiments that tested hallucinogenic drugs, 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 such experiments in the interest of state safety, to combat the perceived threat of Soviet and Chinese mind control methods. He is also regarded as the accidental pioneer of the LSD counterculture, as he introduced the drug to the CIA in the mid-20th century, in an attempt to explore the possibilities of manipulating the human mind. Certain participants were volunteers from the CIA, military officers and college students who had awareness of the nature of the studies. Others, however, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, substance abusers, and prostitutes coerced or deceived into substance administration that in certain instances resulted in permanent damage. Creator's Background Chase won multiple Emmy Awards for his hit series, a complex drama about a New Jersey crime syndicate widely credited with starting the peak era of “prestige” television. Since the show, starring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has mostly focused on movie projects. He authored, helmed, and produced the 2012 film Not Fade Away. Additionally, he collaborated on "The Many Saints of Newark", a Sopranos prequel starring Michael Gandolfini, that premiered in 2021. TV Comeback This comeback to TV follows he stated the era of sophisticated TV dramas in part defined by the Sopranos to be a "temporary phase" that is now finished. 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 studio heads and warned against producing TV content that was overly intricate. He linked that perspective in part to his experience attempting to develop a series with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who finds herself in federal protection. In numerous meetings with producers, he said, they were told "the harsh reality" that it was too complex. "What audience is this targeting?" 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. “And as for streaming executives? It is getting worse. We’re going back to where we were.”