The Sopranos creator David Chase drew a huge crowd at the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
A day after discussing with select reporters at KVIFF one thing he’d change about the enduring hit drama today and sharing insights into his new HBO limited series project, Project: MKUltra, based on John Lisle’s nonfiction book Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA and the Tragedy of MKULTRA, the seven-time Emmy winner took the stage at the expanded and broadened KVIFF Industry Days program of the festival.
The title of his keynote appearance, moderated by Deadline Hollywood‘s Zac Ntim: “The Sopranos and Beyond: David Chase on Storytelling, Television, Film, and the Future of Creative Risk.”
Asked about whether Americans falling in love with the anti-hero character that Tony Soprano and Walter White helped pave the way for desensitizing Americans and had an impact on the political state of the country, hinting at whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s two election victories may have been affected by Americans’ view on what is cool and right. “Well, we have a convicted felon as a president,” Chase said. But “I don’t think that the object of The Sopranos was to say it’s okay, it’s cool if you’re corrupt. I don’t think that was the point. So, I don’t think that exactly tracks.”
Discussing the state of Hollywood, Chase on Wednesday quoted Christopher McQuarrie, the writer of The Usual Suspects. “He left Hollywood, and he said the whole thing is run by only two things: greed and fear, and he’s absolutely right,” Chase offered. “For whatever reason we’re going back to greed and fear. I think that’s just the natural state of things.”
He also shared: “I’ve never really understood the film business. I think the profit margins are like 6 percent. Why do you want to be in that business, especially if you’re afraid you’re going to lose money? … Wouldn’t you be better off selling running shoes?”
Recalling his early days working for U.S. network television, Chase said: “Their business was the selling of advertising time, and so they had these shows that came second to the advertising. All there was very, very strict. It was like it’s like working for the politburo.”
Asked about the ad focus of networks, he said to laughs from the audience: “The business of those people was to sell products, corn flakes and tampons, and cars.” His advice to anyone facing worries about restrictions to creative ideas from networks or streamers: “All you can do is just do what you want and not listen to them.”
Chase even recalled pitching The Sopranos to long-time CBS boss Leslie Moonves, who had some problems with Tony Soprano. He asked Chase if he was “married to this Prozac thing?” he recalled. Chase said yes. “And he has to go to a therapist?” Yes. The result: “We left” the meeting, the creator recalled. Why was this a hang-up for Moonves. “It made Tony weak and sick and not heroic,” Chase explained. It made him “complicated.” His takeaway was that “ambiguity is “the worst” thing to pitch.
Even big-name creators like Chase himself don’t always get their way. A project he wanted to do at HBO “fell apart on money,” he shared. And then he did The Many Saints of Newark, which HBO positioned as a prequel to The Sopranos, which he didn’t view that way,” he explained, adding that he really wanted to make a crime B-movie.
Why is he interested in the topic of how the U.S. considered weaponizing LSD, which Project: MKUltra explores. “Most likely because I took LSD when I was younger,” Chase said to much laughter. “I was not an acid head, but I took it eight or nine times, 10 times, and I believe that it changed my life.” He called LSD “a spiritual experience, and it’s a party.”
He has also been working on a related film, which he described as “a family story,” in addition to the series, sharing: “It can be two different stories,” and it’s not so much about LSD but “about consciousness.” For the film, “we don’t have a distributor” yet, sharing that he expects to first have to make it and then find one.
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