Almost two decades after wrapping up his acclaimed HBO drama The Sopranos, showrunner David Chase is making his long-awaited return to television with a brand-new project.
As reported by Deadline, The Sopranos creator is developing a limited series that will dive into the CIA’s notorious human experimentation program, MKUltra.
Titled Project: MKUltra, the show is inspired by John Lisle’s nonfiction book Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKUltra. The story will center on Sidney Gottlieb, the brilliant yet sinister chemist who led the covert operation.
Known as “The Black Sorcerer,” Gottlieb oversaw shocking experiments on both consenting and unsuspecting subjects in an effort to study mind control. The project’s use of psychological torture and mind-altering drugs has since become infamous, remembered as one of the darkest chapters in CIA history. Ironically, MKUltra’s experiments also played a part in sparking the LSD counterculture movement of the 1960s, with Gottlieb often viewed as an unintentional figurehead of that era.
While details like casting and release dates are still being kept under wraps, Project: MKUltra marks Chase’s first major television project in more than ten years.
Chase, of course, is best known for creating The Sopranos, HBO’s groundbreaking hit that followed mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) as he juggled his personal struggles with his life of organized crime. The series ran for six seasons, earned Chase five Emmy Awards, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential TV shows ever made.
