Overview
- This week at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Chase confirmed he is working on two separate projects about the CIA’s MKUltra era: an HBO limited series and a standalone feature film.
- HBO’s limited series, titled Project: MKUltra, is a confirmed adaptation of John Lisle’s Project Mind Control and will center on CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb and the agency’s MKUltra experiments.
- The untitled film is set in the 1950s, is inspired by a true story from a friend, will be written and directed by Chase, and currently does not have a distributor attached.
- Chase says he remains in the story-writing stage for both projects and that his own early LSD experiences inform the work while he warns the current U.S. political climate raises risks of censorship for sensitive subjects.
- The twin projects expose industry challenges: financing and distribution questions for the feature, HBO’s role under Chase’s Riverain first-look deal, and broader limits on creative risk that could shape how and when the stories are made.