Sebastian Stan to Star in Radu Jude's Next Movie "Frankenstein in Romania"

Romanian auteur Radu Jude's much-anticipated new feature, "Dracula," world premiered at the Locarno Film Festival on Sunday.

He is already writing a movie about a popular character from another iconic horror novel – "Frankenstein" – none other than Sebastian Stan is set to star in it.

“I’m writing a film now,” Jude told Hollywood Reporter. “It’s a Frankenstein film in Romania. Frankenstein in Romania, it’s going to be called.”

Stan and Jude previously discussed their interest in a collaboration, but the iconoclast didn’t immediately have an idea. Then he pitched the star, who was born in Romania before moving to the U.S. with his mother, his idea for the Frankenstein film, which Stan liked. The auteur tells THR that he envisions Stan playing “both roles,” that of Victor Frankenstein and his monster.

The story combines the real-life existence of a secret CIA prison in Romania in the past with the legend of the Frankenstein monster.

Guillermo del Toro’s dark reimagining of "Frankenstein," featuring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth, a Netflix production, was recently premiered as part of the selection for the Venice Film Festival competition lineup.

Jude has had a busy year. Earlier this year, he world premiered "Kontinental ’25", an absurdist comedy-drama about Romania’s housing crisis and the country’s conflicted middle class, at the Berlin Film Festival. It ended up winning the Silver Bear for best screenplay.

Jude world premieres "Dracula", his dissection of the Dracula myth that is full of black comedy for which he has developed a reputation, in the main competition program of the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on Sunday afternoon. “This film features scenes that could shock the sensitivity of some viewers,” the fest website notes.

After "Locarno," Jude plans to shoot another film. “It’s like a very distant dialogue with The Diary of a Chambermaid, the novel by [Octave] Mirbeau,” the auteur tells THR. “I want to speak about immigration and about Romanians working abroad. It’s about a woman who works for a French family in Bordeaux while her own small daughter remains home. So it’s a film around these dramatic issues.”

That means its tone will be less Dracula-ish. “It’s more comparable to Kontinental ’25 in a certain way; it’s a bit more serious,” Jude explained. “I’m interested in exploring this connection between the Western world and Romania and Eastern Europe through the story of a character.”