‘The Sopranos’ Creator David Chase Is Working on a New HBO Series About MKUltra

October 23, 2025 - Hip Hop
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Summary

  • The Sopranos creator David Chase is developing an HBO thriller series titled Project: MKUltra
  • The series will focus on Sidney Gottlieb, the chemist and spymaster who headed the CIA’s controversial MKUltra program
  • The show will be a supernatural drama based on John Lisle’s book, Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA

David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, is developing an HBO thriller series based on the CIA’s controversial MKUltra program.

THR reports that if Project: MKUltra receives the green light, Chase’s return to HBO will focus on Sidney Gottlieb, the chemist and spymaster who headed the project for the agency. HBO describes the show as “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.”

The series will be based on John Lisle’s Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA. Chase will produce alongside Nicole Lambert through Riverain Pictures.

The CIA illegally experimented on humans for MKUltra from 1953 until 1973. The agency would give subjects high doses of LSD and other psychoactive drugs without their consent in order to manipulate their mental states and brain functions. Electroshocks, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse and more were also utilized. MKUltra has been widely condemned.

Stay tuned for more details.

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