🔗 Share this article The Sopranos Creator David Chase Developing HBO Limited Series on CIA Mind Control Initiative David Chase is making a comeback to television. The iconic mob drama creator will write Project MKUltra, a mini-series centered around the Central Intelligence Agency's covert Cold War period mind control program for HBO. About the Project The project, initially revealed by industry sources, marks Chase's first series since the era-defining HBO mob drama. The dramatic thriller, inspired by John Lisle's book Project Mind Control, zeroes in on the notorious scientist, known as the "dark magician" who oversaw the MKUltra initiative, the CIA's clandestine psychedelic program that tested psychedelic substances, hypnosis, and physical coercion on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from 1953 until it was terminated in the early 1970s. Research Activities The scientist oversaw these tests in the interest of state safety, to combat the alleged danger of Russian and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He is also regarded as the inadvertent father of the psychedelic movement, as he brought the substance to the CIA in the 1950s, in an effort to investigate the potential of controlling human consciousness. Some test subjects were willing individuals from the CIA, military officers and college students who had awareness of the nature of the experiments. Others, on the other hand, were mental patients, prisoners, drug addicts, and prostitutes coerced or misled into substance administration that in some cases resulted in permanent damage. Creator's Background David Chase earned five Emmys for his hit series, a complex drama about a New Jersey-based crime syndicate broadly acknowledged with starting the peak era of “prestige” television. After the series, featuring the deceased James Gandolfini, wrapped in 2007, Chase has mostly focused on movie projects. He wrote, directed and produced the 2012 film Not Fade Away. Additionally, he collaborated on "The Many Saints of Newark", a prequel to The Sopranos featuring Gandolfini’s son, that debuted in 2021. TV Comeback His return to television comes after he declared the period of sophisticated TV dramas in some ways shaped by his show to be a “blip” 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 "simplify" his scripts in discussions with executives and advised against producing television that was too complex. Chase attributed that view in partly to his encounter attempting to develop a show with the screenwriter Hannah Fidell about a luxury escort who finds herself in witness protection. In multiple discussions with producers, he noted, they were informed “the unfortunate truth” that it was not straightforward enough. “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 continued. "Regarding streaming leaders? The situation is deteriorating. We are reverting to previous conditions."