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The acclaimed creator is making a return to television. The iconic mob drama creator will write Project MKUltra, a mini-series focusing on the CIA's covert Cold War period mind control program for HBO.

About the Project

The project, first reported by industry sources, will be Chase's initial TV project following the era-defining HBO mob drama. This intense narrative, based on John Lisle's book Project Mind Control, zeroes in on the notorious scientist, referred to as the “black sorcerer” who oversaw the MKUltra initiative, the CIA's clandestine psychedelic program that tested psychedelic substances, hypnosis, and torture on volunteers and non-consenting individuals from 1953 until it was halted in the early 1970s.

The Experiments

Gottlieb oversaw these tests in the interest of state safety, to combat the perceived threat of Soviet and Chinese “brainwashing” techniques. He's also known as the accidental pioneer of the psychedelic movement, as he introduced the drug to the CIA in the 1950s, in an effort to explore the potential of controlling the human mind. Some test subjects were willing individuals from the agency, military officers and university attendees who had knowledge of the purpose of the experiments. Additional subjects, on the other hand, were psychiatric inmates, incarcerated persons, substance abusers, and prostitutes coerced or deceived into drug dosages that in certain instances resulted in long-term harm.

Chase's Legacy

Chase earned multiple Emmy Awards for the Sopranos, a complex drama about a New Jersey mafia family widely credited with ushering in the peak era of high-quality TV. After the series, starring 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 starring Michael Gandolfini, that premiered in 2021.

Return to Television

This comeback to television comes after he declared the era of ambitious TV dramas in some ways shaped by his show to be a “blip” that is now finished. In an interview with a major publication for the series' quarter-century milestone, the 78-year-old claimed that he had been told to “dumb down” his scripts in meetings with studio heads and advised against producing television that was overly intricate.

He attributed that perspective in part to his experience attempting to develop a series with the writer 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 unfortunate truth” that it was too complex. “Who is this all really for?” he said. “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."