The OP himself mentions Shakespeare, so I think we have to interpret that by “Plays don’t count” the OP meant that performing a work as a play doesn’t count. Has to be done as a movie, TV show, etc. In this regard, Shakespeare wins hands down, because people have dramatized oodles of his works in film and television.
Well, not really oodles. More like 37, if the lesser lyrics are excluded. Still, I think it’s more than anyone else.
Since filmed versions of plays are included, runners-up would probably include other playwrights like Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, etc. Dickens, Poe, Conrad, King, would have to be right up there as well.
At some point a real theory of what constitutes a work/plot/character would have to be invoked, a la Roman Ingarden.
Okay, by my count Agatha Christie has had 52 individual works (books, short stories, and two plays) turned into film or TV, some several times. I was going to go through and count Stephen King, but I didn’t have the energy! She beats Shakespeare, though.
Did you remember to count Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?
Seriously, Fleming wrote twelve Bond novels, nine Bond short stories, CCBB, and two non-fiction books (neither of which was adapted). How can you possibly get 41 adaptations?
The prolific author Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) beats Shakespeare and Agatha Christie in the number of his short stories, novels, and plays made into movies.
I’ll guess Stan Lee, if not the person with the most movies of his work, is probably catching up fast. Just in the last few years there must’ve been 10ish movies made of his work and half a dozen TV series.
The OP is not looking for the most movies made of a person’s works, the OP is looking for the most works made into movies. The Spider-Man movies and such are based on characters Stan Lee created, not particular, individual works. Do you think “10ish” is close to Shakespeare’s 37 works adapted, or Agatha Christie’s 52 works adapted, or I’ve-lost-count-of-how-many Edgar Wallace works were adapted?
Seems like a pretty hazy line to draw. After all, I’m sure that many adaptations for Agatha Christie’s work took liberties with the story, or even drew plots from other of her books into a single movie. At what point are you no longer basing a story on an idividual work but instead on a persons work in general? My impression was that at least some of the Stan Lee movies and TV shows were following the story arcs from the comics, but I don’t really know much about it. Guess we’d need a comic book fan in here to tell us how faithfull the various comic book movies are to the comic books themselves.
Also it’s a little tough to figure what would compose “a work” when it comes to comic books. One story arc, one character’s story line, one issue, etc.
Anyhoo, depending on how you defined your terms, I think Stan Lee would beat out Shakespeare (in quantity, though probably not so much quality).
Rudyard Kipling - 52