I was curious. First time around was 2015. Now, 10 years later, what were the changes on exactly who is the most adapted writer for movies.
Who would you guess? Give me your Top 3 on Most Adapted Writer circa 2025 before I tell you…
Drumroll please…our #1 is, of course, The Bard…
IMDB in 2015 had William Shakespeare for 1,098 adaptations. Today it’s 1,919! In the production year of 2025, I still count over 15 projects attributed to The Bard. 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 classical writers by the numbers are as follows(***NOTE: Original list was 2015, looks like there’s been some movement. Updated, Fall 2025*):
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 his credit? Helpful hint: He’s still living…
Drumroll please…
Hell yeah, Stephen King!
King was only tied for 18th when the Slate list was put together but since then he’s moved up to #7! This puts him ahead of Oscar Wilde and Victor Hugo. And, while we’re at it, he’s got more movie credits than Earnest Hemingway (86) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (68) combined!
It might be instructive, and telling of our times, that Stan Lee at 207 credits and Bob Kane, creator of Batman at 271 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 Batman coming out in 2021.
Nelson Algren, one of the best novelists ever out of Chicago, has just eight films attributed to him. 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.
