What Author Has Had the Most Movies Adapted From Their Books?

January 4th, 2004 at 3:09 pm (Film Theory)

Last week my friend David asked me what Author I thought had most of his work adapted to movies. It was an interesting question and an interesting discussion. We tossed back and forth a few likely names like Isaac Asimov, Phillip K Dick and Michael Crichton but concluded that the most likely suspect for this honor would be the King himself: Stephen King. I just did some quick searching on the IMDB and found this out:

Philip K. Dick: 11 writing credits.

John Grisham: 13 writing credits.

Isaac Asimov: 21 writing credits.

Michael Crichton: 25 writing credits.

Stephen King: 81 writing credits!

Can anyone think of other authors that might rival these guys?

12 Comments

  1. chris said,

    January 4, 2004 at 6:27 pm

    Jane Austen: 21
    Mark Twain: 78

  2. chris said,

    January 5, 2004 at 1:31 am

    and now that I think about it again, I would bet Shakespeare has writing credits on quite a few movies. :)

  3. Leopoldo said,

    January 5, 2004 at 3:47 pm

    Mark Twain is a great catch! And close to Stephen King’s count too. William Shakespeare is of course THE reigning king with a grand total of 528 titles crediting him for writing.

  4. Nick said,

    January 5, 2004 at 5:59 pm

    Some are kind of tough, like Wiliam Goldman, who has 27 credits but only a couple are adapted from books.

    H.G. Wells: 61 (also has one acting credit!)
    Ray Bradbury: 41 (many are TV)
    Elmore Leonard: 30 (I thought there’d be more)
    Dashiell Hammet: 25
    James Cain: 24
    Raymond Chandler: 22
    Agatha Christie: 82 (a lot are TV)

    Sci-Fi and pulp fiction seem to be good sources for looking up winners.

  5. john said,

    January 5, 2004 at 10:13 pm

    Ian Fleming has 15 to his credit. 14 James Bond flicks, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

  6. AUSTIN said,

    January 10, 2004 at 9:25 am

    Graham Greene: 44
    http://imdb.com/name/nm0001294/

    W. Somerset Maugham: 89
    http://imdb.com/name/nm0560857/

  7. Nick said,

    January 13, 2004 at 11:39 pm

    I felt bad about not knowing who W. Somerset Maugham was until I read through the list of movies and realized I didn’t know any of them either.

    I wonder if this is what will happen with Stephen King?

  8. Leopoldo said,

    January 14, 2004 at 9:28 am

    I had a very similar reaction. I recognize the author’s name from the book Of Human Bondage but do not think I have ever either read any of his works nor seen any movie (or TV show, most in the list are TV adaptations) based on his works. I have been curious to read Of Human Bondage because it is referred to so much by movie characters who are intended to be deep or interested in ‘the human condition’. The name actually just came up last week as I was watching season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a young college intellectual asked Buffy if she had read the book.

  9. gold_bed said,

    February 16, 2004 at 9:16 am

    Joseph Conrad: 43, but most of them are for Victory….

  10. jengod said,

    February 18, 2004 at 2:15 pm

    Charles Dickens: 180, dating from 1897’s Death of Nancy Sykes

    P.S. Linked this page to Wikipedia: Lists of movie source material

  11. most novels to movies : writer said,

    June 23, 2007 at 1:47 am

    according to imdb charles dickens has 244 of his writing used in films. But the bawdy bard shakespeare comes in at a mammoth 688 !

  12. Steve said,

    May 12, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    You guys are all wrong.. The most prolific author to have his works made into feature films is- ZANE GREY- Over 100 films have been made based on his works…

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