Tolstoy’s novella has inspired the following adaptations on film (adapted from Wikipedia):
- Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952) – about a Tokyo businessman (played by Takashi Tamura) who is terminally ill
- Alexander Kaidanovsky’s A Simple Death (1985) – a direct adaptation of Tolstoy’s story, it concerns a man possessed of riches who declares himself to be completely happy, then learns he is about to die.
- Bernard Rosen’s Ivans Xtc (2000) – updates Tolstoy to present-day Hollywood, where an agent (played by John Huston’s son, Danny) must confront his impending death from cancer, even as he deals with an egotistical star, played by Peter Weller.
- Iranian actor and director Ali Mosaffa’s The Last Step (2005) – inspired not only by Tolstoy but also James Joyce’s The Dead, a novella filmed by the aforementioned John Huston in 1985.
- Oliver Hermanus’ Living (2022) – this most recent updating stars Bill Nighy as an aloof bureaucrat living in post-World War II London who learns that he has only a few months to live. He considers suicide but decides instead to build a children’s playground on a bomb site and dedicate it to the women whose idea it was. Nighy was nominated for an Oscar.
- The Death of Mr. Kim – an 80-Minute Chamber Opera (2020) Composed by Yeseung Oh with libretto by Young-Sun Shin Produced by Opera Bank in South Korea.
- Death of Ivan Ilyich (2021) – a Full-Length Chamber Opera in One Act composed by John Young with libretto by Alan Olejniczak. A Co-Partnership Premiere with Opera Orlando and Thompson Street Opera Company.
