David Chase to helm HBO MKUltra series and indie film

David Chase, the creator of the landmark HBO series "The Sopranos," is developing two major projects exploring the CIA's infamous MKUltra program, he revealed during an industry talk at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic. The veteran writer and producer is working on a limited series for HBO titled "Project MKUltra" and is separately writing and directing an independent feature film on a related theme, marking his first directorial effort since 2012.

The HBO series is based on the nonfiction book "Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKUltra" by John Lisle. It will focus on the real-life chemist and spymaster Sidney Gottlieb, who headed the CIA's MKUltra Psychedelic program. That Cold War-era initiative conducted dangerous mind-control experiments on willing and unwilling subjects using high doses of LSD and other methods. Gottlieb has been described as an unwitting godfather of the LSD counterculture.

Chase's parallel film project is untitled and will be set in the 1950s. It is inspired by a true story from a friend and will juxtapose the CIA's efforts to weaponize LSD with the triumphant rollout of the polio...