Dracula is a UK horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions and released in 1958. Directed by Terence Fisher with a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster, Dracula loosely adapts the original 1897 novel by Bram Stoker. Dracula is the third authorized adaptation of Stoker's book, the first two being the 1931 Universal Pictures version of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, as well as the 1931 Spanish version Drácula, which was filmed simultaneously. Dracula features actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in the first of a franchise that spans nine films under Hammer's production. While Fisher and Sangster retool many of the characters from Stoker's novel, the basic plot elements and character dynamics are vastly different.