Home / Arts and Entertainment / Sopranos Creator David Chase to Adapt Chilling CIA Mind Control Saga
Sopranos Creator David Chase to Adapt Chilling CIA Mind Control Saga
22 Oct
Summary
- David Chase's first series since The Sopranos
- Based on book about CIA's MKUltra program
- Focuses on chemist Sidney Gottlieb, the "Black Sorcerer"
In a major television development, acclaimed Sopranos creator David Chase is set to adapt a dramatic thriller based on the CIA's infamous MKUltra mind control program. The project, which will mark Chase's first series since his groundbreaking HBO mob drama, is 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. The series, titled "Project: MKUltra," will focus on the life of Sidney Gottlieb, the chemist and spymaster often referred to as the "Black Sorcerer," who headed the CIA's MKUltra Psychedelic program in the 1950s and 60s. The covert operation conducted dangerous and deadly mind control experiments on willing and unwilling subjects during the height of the Cold War, with Gottlieb also known as the unwitting godfather of the entire LSD counterculture.
Chase and Nicole Lambert will executive produce "Project: MKUltra" for Riverain Pictures, where Lambert serves as Head of Production and Development. The acclaimed writer-director, who has won seven Emmys, five of them for The Sopranos, is currently working on an indie movie he plans to shoot early next year.
