Who is the most adapted writer of all-time? Give me your top 3 before I tell you… who would it be?
Writing this in October 2015, our #1 is, of course, The Bard…
IMDB has William Shakespeare for 1,098 adaptations! This includes 379 feature films, and 16 projects in development in 2015-16 based on his work. How now, Horatio, what you think on it?! Check out this breakdown beautifully put together by Slate Magazine of the most adapted writers…
Top 10 by the numbers are as follows:
How about modern writers? Who would you guess is #1? By modern, let’s confine ourselves to born in the 20th Century onward. What modern writer has the most adapted movies to their credit? Helpful hint: He’s still living…
Drumroll please…
Hell yeah, Stephen King!
Not sure when the Slate list was put together but King, tied for 18th here, has actually moved up the hit parade. IMDB has him at this writing at 199 credits. This puts him ahead of Leo Tolstoy and Victor Hugo. And, while we’re at it, he’s got more movie credits than Earnest Hemingway (73) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (63) combined!
It might be instructive, and telling of our times, that Stan Lee at 111 credits and Bob Kane, creator of Batman at 121 credits, have Sophocles (65) and Euripides (55) beat by a mile.
Ask a freshman class at Columbia College film school who Sophocles is and you’ll get 16 blank faces. Ask about the latest Batman project and they’ll be able to tell you about every aspect of the pre-production of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice. I have to stop myself from asking how many have heard of Katherine Hepburn. Will even half of them raise their hands?
I’m planning on doing a series about writers and their history in the movies. Nelson Algren, one of the best novelists ever out of Chicago, had a notorious history with film adaptations of his work. It was recently on display in the documentary Algren, made by Michael Caplan, a fellow Columbia College teacher. Nelson’s infamous dealings with Otto Preminger on The Man With The Golden Arm are the stuff of legend. As was his lousy poker playing, which, rumor had it, had him practically give away the rights to his second adaptation, Walk On The Wild Side.
I leave you today with the credit sequence from that movie, created by Saul Bass, to the music of Elmer Bernstein. It is a work of genius…
…though the folks at PETA might disagree.
It’s not how many WRITING credits he has, it’s how many times his writing has been ADAPTED. IMDB does not rule all. How many film screenplays have been ADAPTED from his other writing like novels, plays and short stories?
Am I missing something? I thought that’s what I said? Most adapted writer, not original writing credits. He has zero original screenwriting credits because, um, well, you know…