"Sopranos" creator David Chase has warned that political censorship could take hold in Hollywood under President Donald Trump, saying the situation is only "a hop, skip and a jump" away. Speaking to Variety at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, the veteran writer said he had grown concerned about the prospect of artists facing political restrictions on their work since Trump took office, a warning that adds to wider debate about creative freedom in the current political climate.

Chase made the remarks while discussing "Project: MKUltra", an HBO series he is developing about the CIA's Cold War-era mind control programme, along with a separate independent film dealing with the drug LSD. He said his worry was less about online conspiracy theorists or right-wing critics and more about creatives being told "you can't say that, and you can't do that". Chase agreed that his fears amounted to those of a modern-day Hays Code, the old Hollywood censorship system, and compared the situation to his early years in network television, where strict rules governed even minor on-screen details such as burping or showing a toilet bowl.