August 2025 - Sebastian Stan Fan Sebastian Stan Fan

News: Inside the Stefan and Damon casting on The Vampire Diaries: Sebastian Stan, Matt Czuchry, and more (exclusive)

Entertainment Weekly – The “Thunderbolts*” and “Gilmore Girls” stars were in the running for the future CW hit — plus more secrets from casting.

Before there was Paul Wesley’s Stefan on The Vampire Diaries, there was Sebastian Stan.

For I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries — a new book out Sep. 9 — author and Entertainment Weekly’s own executive TV editor Samantha Highfill somehow managed to find new intel after years of reporting on the hit CW show. That includes some factoids on the casting process for leads Stefan and Damon.

In an exclusive excerpt from the book, key members of the show’s team reveal that Stan (the future Marvel superstar behind the character of Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier) took a meeting for the role of Stefan, the brooding vampire hottie eventually portrayed by Wesley on The Vampire Diaries.

At the time, Stan was on “that movie with all the hot boys” — the phrase series co-creator Julie Plec uses to describe 2006’s The Covenant, which also starred Steven Strait (The Expanse), Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights), and Toby Hemingway (In Time). Stan also read for the role of Damon, Ian Somerhalder’s future part, while Strait was considered for Stefan too. Stan had to bow out, however, over commitments to Kings, the 2004 King David-inspired NBC drama.

As Highfill reports in her book, another name considered for Stefan included Nathaniel Buzolic (the future “Original” vampire Kol Mikaelson), while Matt Czuchry (Gilmore Girls), Jesse Bradford (Bring It On), and Travis Van Winkle (The Last Ship) were in conversation for Damon.

[…]

GREG ORSON: There was a meeting with a star for Stefan.

LESLI GELLES-RAYMOND: It was Sebastian Stan. He came over to meet, so we got to spend some time chatting with him. It was very cool. We were totally interested in him, and he was discussed at the studio the first time we tested Stefan, but we couldn’t do it because he was tied to another show when this happened, so it didn’t work out. He was tied to Kings.

[…]
LESLI GELLES-RAYMOND: For a while, their dream cast would’ve been Steven Strait [for Stefan] and Sebastian Stan [for Damon], because Sebastian also read for Damon. That was Stefan and Damon for a while. But Sebastian was on Kings, so that wasn’t going to work out.

Mother your children are like birds

Verse 1

For as long as I can remember,
The windows always glowed for me,
In the room filled with quiet spring,
And embroidered towels on the wall.
In that sacred, peaceful chamber,
A child’s heart would read and know
Shevchenko’s kind and watchful eyes,
And golden patterns in a row.

Chorus

Mother, your children are like birds,
Spreading wings into the sky.
Mother, to your tender room,
We’ll return again by and by.

Verse 2

That endless childhood temptation –
Open the door and you will see,
A table dressed in Sunday white
And mother waiting patiently.

Verse 3

For as long as I can remember,
That white cloth always shone so bright.
In your room, dear mother, I know,
Every day felt like Sunday light.

Chorus

Mother, your children are like birds,
Spreading wings into the sky.
Mother, to your tender room,
We’ll return again by and by.

Verse 4

Maybe far from home and shelter,
My wings will falter in the air.
The star will fade, and after that –
No more nightingales anywhere.

Verse 5

Son, remember this, my son –
No matter where life takes your flight,
All may leave their mother’s home,
But none forget its gentle light.

Chorus (x2)

Mother, your children are like birds,
Spreading wings into the sky.
Mother, to your tender room,
We’ll return again by and by.

Photo/Video: ‘The Apprentice’ French Blu-Ray Interview (w/ Screen Captures)

Surprise! I managed to get my hands on a French Blu-Ray Copy of ‘The Apprentice‘ that featured the full EPK interview for the film. I’ve added screencaps to the gallery and a video of the full almost ten minute EPK interview below. Enjoy.

Film Projects > The Apprentice (2024) > Blu-Ray Full EPK Interview [Screen Captures]

News: ‘Frankenstein in Romania’: Sebastian Stan Set to Star in Film That Radu Jude Is Writing

The Hollywood Reporter – The free-spirited iconoclast also plans to next shoot a movie “about immigration and about Romanians working abroad.”

Romanian auteur Radu Jude (Kontinental ’25, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World) is world premiering his much-anticipated new feature, Dracula, at the Locarno Film Festival on Sunday, but he is already writing a movie about a popular character from another iconic horror novel – Frankenstein. And none other than Marvel Cinematic Universe star Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice, A Different Man, Pam & Tommy, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) is set to star in it.

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

Stan and the iconoclast previously discussed their interest in a collaboration, but Jude 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, according to Jude. The auteur tells THR that he envisions Stan playing “both roles,” that of Victor Frankenstein and his monster.

The story is understood to combine 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 unveiled as being part of the selection for the Venice Film Festival competition lineup.

Auteur Jude has had a busy 2025. 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 the 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 later 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 explains. “I’m interested in exploring this connection between the Western world and Romania and Eastern Europe through the story of a character.”

News: Radu Jude will make a movie with Sebastian Stan. Jude: “I want to make Romanian movies.”

culturaladuba-ro

Something I really liked in the end. So I’m also going to do a Frankenstein in Romania, with Sebastian Stan, who invited me to work together.

Sebastian contacted me a while ago, he said he would like to collaborate, but I had no idea. Finally, I thought, while I was working on the sound for Dracula , that I could propose a film that would start from the reality of the CIA prisons in Romania, from 20 years ago, and combine these ideas with another cinematic myth, that of the Frankenstein monster. Sebastian said yes , so I started writing the script, but it will take some time.

Why did you think of it? Is it also a marketing strategy?

Because I really appreciate him, he’s a great actor and he seems like a very curious guy, so I said: why not?

It’s important to admit, maybe it’s not very sexy for me to say this, but I don’t have any kind of ideal or dream project that I obsessively think about. If I have an idea, I try to do it, if I can, that’s all.