🔗 Share this article The Sopranos Creator David Chase to Write HBO Limited Series on CIA Mind Control Initiative David Chase is making a return to television. The iconic mob drama creator will write MKUltra, a mini-series focusing on the CIA's covert cold war-era mind control program for HBO. Exploring the Project This new venture, initially revealed by industry sources, marks David Chase's initial TV project following the groundbreaking HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, based on John Lisle's book Project Mind Control, focuses on the notorious scientist, known as the “black sorcerer” who led the MKUltra initiative, the CIA's covert hallucinogen experiments that administered hallucinogenic drugs, hypnotic techniques, and torture on willing and unwilling subjects from the early 1950s until it was terminated in 1973. Research Activities Gottlieb oversaw these tests in the name of national security, to counter the alleged danger of Soviet and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the inadvertent father of the LSD counterculture, as he introduced the drug to the CIA in the mid-20th century, in an effort to explore the possibilities of controlling the human mind. Certain participants were volunteers from the CIA, military officers and university attendees who had knowledge of the purpose of the experiments. Additional subjects, however, were psychiatric inmates, incarcerated persons, drug addicts, and prostitutes forced or misled into substance administration that in certain instances left permanent damage. Creator's Background Chase won five Emmys for the Sopranos, a complex drama about a New Jersey crime syndicate broadly acknowledged with starting the peak era of high-quality TV. Since the show, starring the late James Gandolfini, concluded in 2007, Chase has primarily concentrated on feature films. He wrote, directed and produced the 2012 movie "Not Fade Away". Additionally, he collaborated on "The Many Saints of Newark", a Sopranos prequel featuring Michael Gandolfini, that premiered in 2021. Return to Television This comeback to television comes after he declared the period of ambitious television series in part defined by his show to be a “blip” that is now finished. In an interview with a major publication for the show’s 25th anniversary, the 78-year-old claimed that he had been told to "simplify" his scripts in meetings with executives and warned against producing television that was too complex. He linked that view in partly to his experience attempting to develop a show with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker who finds herself in federal protection. In numerous meetings with producers, he noted, 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 added. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."