EXCLUSIVE: The Sopranos creator David Chase is revisiting a dark chapter in CIA history with Project: MKUltra, a limited series in development at HBO.
The project, which would make Chase’s first series since his groundbreaking HBO mob drama, will be based on the non-fiction book Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKUltra by author John Lisle. Chase has optioned the book and will write the adaptation which falls under the first-look deal his company Riverain Pictures has at HBO.
Project: MKUltra is a dramatic thriller centered on the infamous chemist and spymaster Sidney Gottlieb, often known as The Black Sorcerer, who headed the CIA’s MKUltra Psychedelic program which conducted dangerous and deadly mind control experiments on willing – and unwilling – subjects during the height of the Cold War. Gottlieb is also known as the unwitting godfather of the entire LSD counterculture.
Chase and Nicole Lambert executive produce Project: MKUltra for Riverain Pictures, where Lambert serves as Head of Production and Development.
Operated by the CIA in the 1950s and ’60s, the covert MKUltra program sought to counter perceived Soviet and Chinese advances in “brainwashing” techniques by administering psychedelic drugs, practicing hypnosis, and subjecting individuals to torture — often without their knowledge or consent — to elicit confessions.
Chase has won seven Emmys, five of them for The Sopranos, including two for Outstanding Drama Series.
After the show starring the late James Gandofini wrapped its six-season run in 2007, Chase focused his attention on features, writing, directing and producing the 2012 film Not Fade Away and co-writing and producing The Sopranos prequel movie The Many Saints Of Newark, released in 2021. He has an indie movie in the works, which he plans to shoot early next year.
In TV, an unproduced script by Chase became the basis for FX’s untitled witness protection pilot from Hannah Fidell and Gina Welch which stars Alison Brie. He was also featured in HBO’s 2024 two-part documentary Wise Guy: David Case and the Sopranos.
Chase is repped by UTA, Untitled, Gendler Kelly & Cunningham and 42West.
