🔗 Share this article Sopranos Mastermind David Chase Developing HBO Limited Series on CIA Drug Program The acclaimed creator is making a comeback to television. The Sopranos creator will write Project MKUltra, a limited series centered around the CIA's secret Cold War period mind control program for HBO. Exploring the Project The project, first reported by entertainment insiders, marks Chase's first series following the groundbreaking HBO mob drama. This intense narrative, inspired by the author's non-fiction work Project Mind Control, zeroes in on the notorious scientist, known as the "dark magician" who oversaw the MKUltra initiative, the agency's clandestine psychedelic program that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnosis, and torture on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from 1953 until it was halted in the early 1970s. The Experiments The scientist oversaw such experiments in the interest of national security, to combat the alleged danger of Soviet and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He is also regarded as the inadvertent father of the LSD counterculture, as he brought the substance to the agency in the 1950s, in an attempt to investigate the potential 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 experiments. Additional subjects, however, were psychiatric inmates, prisoners, substance abusers, and prostitutes forced or deceived into substance administration that in certain instances resulted in long-term harm. Chase's Legacy Chase earned five Emmys for the Sopranos, a intricate narrative about a New Jersey mafia family broadly acknowledged with ushering in the peak era of “prestige” television. Since the show, featuring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has primarily concentrated on feature films. 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 Gandolfini’s son, that premiered in 2021. Return to Television This comeback to television comes after he declared the period of ambitious TV dramas in part defined by his show to be a "temporary phase" that is now over. In an interview with a leading newspaper for the series' quarter-century milestone, the 78-year-old claimed that he had been told to “dumb down” his scripts in discussions with executives and warned against making TV content that was overly intricate. Chase attributed that perspective in partly to his encounter trying to make a series with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who ends up in federal protection. In numerous meetings with producers, he noted, they were told “the unfortunate truth” 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. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."