Dracula needs no introduction. He's the most famous vampire of all-time and one of the most famous characters in the history of Gothic horror. Very few characters have been put on screen more than the Count, having iterations of himself going back to 1922's Nosferatu, and his story continues up till today with the 2020 Netflix series.
Despite countless adaptations in film, television, comics and animation, the source material for Dracula has never been faithfully adapted. Whenever Bram Stoker's 1897 novel is brought to the screen, a lot is changed, from the characters, to the plot, to the established mythology.
A major reason why that's been the case is that the novel does not follow conventional storytelling methods. It reads out in an epistolary format, meaning that the story is told through the written accounts of its fictional characters in the form of diary entries, letters, ship logs, news clippings and articles. It is the book equivalent of a found-footage movie. This explains why most film adaptations, especially the early ones, change the story because the slow-burn nature of the novel is near impossible to translate onto screen. The action and the pace of a film version needs to be increased in order for the audience to be engaged, especially given the time constraints.
If a filmmaker were to attempt to bring Dracula to the screen without any changes, the final product would have to be a Lord of the Rings style trilogy or a mini-series for television. Stoker added so much detail and depth to the plot in Dracula that it made a highly engaging and realistic read at the time; however, this made it difficult to adapt faithfully in other media.
The first version of a Dracula movie is the 1922 silent classic Nosferatu; although, the filmmakers changed the character names and the plot to make it seem like it was an original film since they did not receive permission from Stoker's widow, Florence, to adapt it. Despite their efforts, the Stoker estate sued the film production, and all prints were ordered to be destroyed. However, a few copies survived and resurfaced to bring the film into pop culture.
While Nosferatu made the vampire look more like a monstrous creature, the later and official Dracula movies, such as the 1931 classic starring Bela Lugosi and the Hammer Horror series starring Christopher Lee, made the vampire look more human. These versions show that the vampire is initially a charming, mysterious Count who seduces his victims before revealing he's a monster. What's forgotten from Stoker's novel is that upon first impression Dracula appears as older man with creepy features, and he de-ages when he arrives in civilization.
Throughout the subsequent adaptations, the titular character has been given some iconic performances, but these versions have had mixed results for the book's supporting characters. Most people can name Dracula's enemy Van Helsing thanks to his charismatic and heroic portrayals in film, even receiving his own movie starring Hugh Jackman; however, in the book, he's a middle-aged professor who explains vampire lore to readers. People in general also know Dracula has another male adversary who serves as an audience avatar, as well as a female victim or two. In the novel those characters are Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra, but on screen they've often been reimagined or simplified.
When Francis Ford Coppola brought several narrative and plot elements of the novel to life in the fittingly titled Bram Stoker's Dracula, he still added an angle to it that had nothing to do with the book. There's been academic speculation that the vampire is based off real life Romanian ruler, Vlad the Impaler, so Coppola used that historical tie to make Dracula and Vlad one-and-the-same. However, there is nothing about the historical figure in the book.
All these years later and Dracula keeps going strong, with the latest version being the new Netflix series. However, this series too deviates from Stoker's plot. With the franchise being exhausted in every facet, the most refreshing thing to do for Dracula would be to have a mini-series that is 100 percent accurate to Stoker's vision. While that's an obvious risk considering the novel's slow pace, the franchise is strong enough to take that risk.