I think the 2004 numbers are actually higher than you suggest. Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo is the third in the Man With No Name trilogy, but North by Northwest and Memento seem to be original.
Oops, thanks for picking me up on those. You’re correct about IBIBIC and North by Northwest (maybe I mixed up the second with Psycho?). I’m not sure about Memento. On first Google it looked like Jonathan Nolan had written a short story with a similar premise, and that his brother Christopher had developed the film from the same premise, but without adapting the short story in the usual sense. Further reading convinced me that, actually, Christopher had adapted the film loosely from the short story, so I counted it as an adaptation.
Now I look a third time, I see from some guy’s student paper that the film [edit: allegedly] wasn’t adapted from the short story after all:
However, in an interview on the DVD, Chris Nolan reveals an interesting fact: the short story was not completed until well after filming of the movie had started. His brother Jonathan explained the idea to him on a cross-country roadtrip and granted him permission to extend it into a film. Here we see that “Memento Mori” is not the primary, hypotext we have been assuming. Instead, both the short story and the film are different readings or interpretations of Jonathan Nolan’s original idea, as explained during that car ride.
Maybe I’ll just give Memento a half point!
[Edit: forgot to acknowledge you on Casablanca. I decided it wasn’t original because of the unproduced play you mention, but since the play wasn’t produced my decision is kind of arguable.]
Oops, thanks for picking me up on those. You’re correct about IBIBIC and North by Northwest (maybe I mixed up the second with Psycho?). I’m not sure about Memento. On first Google it looked like Jonathan Nolan had written a short story with a similar premise, and that his brother Christopher had developed the film from the same premise, but without adapting the short story in the usual sense. Further reading convinced me that, actually, Christopher had adapted the film loosely from the short story, so I counted it as an adaptation.
Now I look a third time, I see from some guy’s student paper that the film [edit: allegedly] wasn’t adapted from the short story after all:
Maybe I’ll just give Memento a half point!
[Edit: forgot to acknowledge you on Casablanca. I decided it wasn’t original because of the unproduced play you mention, but since the play wasn’t produced my decision is kind of arguable.]