The Turn of the Screw adaptations and reworkings in a variety of media, and these reworkings and adaptations have, themselves, been analysed in the academic literature on Henry James and neo-Victorian culture. It was adapted to an opera by Benjamin Britten, which premiered in 1954, and the opera has been filmed on numerous occasions. The novella was adapted as a ballet score (1980) by Luigi Zaninelli, and separately as a ballet (1999) by Will Tucket for the Royal Ballet. Harold Pinter directed "The Innocents" (1950), a Broadway play which was an adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw", and a subsequent eponymous stage play, adapted
Doctor Ox's Experiment (opera) approached Blake Morrison in May 1988 with the suggestion of working on an opera based on Verne's novella. At the time Morrison knew neither the Verne story nor Bryars's music but he agreed to the proposal after a lunchtime meeting with the composer. They worked together on a concert piece which was premiered as "Doctor Ox's Experiment (Epilogue)" by the soprano Sarah Leonard and the Gavin Bryars Ensemble in November 1988. Both composer and librettist were distracted by other projects but Dennis Marks, who had moved from the BBC to become General Director of ENO, commissioned a full-scale opera to