New David Chase Limited Series
For many, The Sopranos made David Chase television royalty. Unfortunately, it would take about eighteen years for Chase to move on to his next TV project. This time, he moves onto the subject of sleeper agents with Project: MKUltra. Project: MKUltra will be based on the non-fiction book Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKUltra by author John Lisle. The series is described as a dramatic thriller which will be 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 Mistake on The Many Saints of Newark
After The Sopranos ended, Chase did return to his mob world for a prequel film in 2021, but he admits that it was meant to be only a partial origin story, but “unfortunately that took over the whole process.” According to Deadline, Chase recently spoke at a Q&A during the Karlovy Vary Film Festival and the television giant would admit to making a mistake with that project. He explained,
I can tell you, we just made a mistake. There was the character of Dickie, who was Chris’s father. We had talked about him all through The Sopranos, that he was a drug addict and an alcoholic and insane. And then when we made the movie, he wasn’t in it.”sponsored content
He continued to explain,
I don’t know how we forgot that, but we did. The problem was we didn’t want to cross him with Tony Soprano. We thought, well, he looked like the same kind of guy, some kind of rage-filled idiot, so we didn’t do it.”
He also pointed out how fortunate he was that HBO did not interfere with his process in making The Sopranos. He talks about his past experiences on working with other studios,
I hadn’t been that lucky before that because I know that I write outside of what they want. They want everything they’ve seen before. They want things they’ve seen make loads of money before. It’s very simple really. And they want the Oscars and to go to the parties.”
He also said that he doesn’t understand why studios are so afraid of artistic freedom,
I’m not a businessman, but the profit margins in the motion picture business have always been around 6%, from the silent era to the present day, so I’m not sure why anyone would get into that business if you’re afraid of taking risks. You’re better off selling running shoes.”
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