How many versions of romeo and Juliet have been made Movies and plays?

Answer 1

It depends what you call a "version". There are, of course, movies which use the events of Shakespeare's play and Shakespeare's words. There are others which follow the story fairly closely but do not use Shakespeare's language. There are others which have allusions to Shakespeare's play but only a vague resemblance to the plot. (For example, it is a love story where the parents of the lovers don't get along.) IMDb lists 200 different films and TV shows, many of which fall into the last category, including many television episodes in which some part of the play is referred to. Of these, there are about 19 which use the plot and language of Shakespeare's plays. These are: Leonardo di Caprio-Clare Danes (1996), Leonard Whiting-Olivia Hussey (1968), Orlando Bloom-Condola Rashad (2014), Leslie Howard-Norma Shearer (1936), Laurence Harvey-Susan Shentall (1954), Christopher Neame-Ann Hasson (1976), Patrick Ryecart-Rebecca Saire (1978), Clive Francis-Angela Scoular (1965), Douglas Booth-Hailee Steinfeld (2013), John Bailey-Rosalie Crutchley (1947), John Neville-Claire Bloom (1957), Kevin McCarthy-Patricia Breslin (1949), Liam Sullivan-Susan Strasburg (1954), Tony Britton-Virginia McKenna (1955), Hywel Bennett-Kika Markham (1967), Tomiwa Edun-Ellie Kendrick (2010), Alex Hyde-White-Blanche Baker (1982), Jonathan Firth-Geraldine Somerville (1994), Antoni Cimolino-Megan Follows (1993).As for the play, Shakespeare wrote his play about 1595 and that's the play, even though it has been adapted and performed countless times in the 420 years or so since it first appeared. And when I say countless I mean it--there can be no way of numbering all of the different productions of this ever-popular play, each one of which is a different "version" if you like.