3. The Last Man on Earth
The recent I Am Legend starring Will Smith is based on the 1954 novella of the same name by Richard Matheson, but it's actually the fourth time the story has been adapted for the big screen. (Matheson purists should note that each adaptation has in some way deviated from the book.)
The first film was The Last Man on Earth (1964), with Vincent Price as the main character (here known as Robert Morgan instead of Robert Neville), and many fans consider it the most faithful of the four. It has no skyscrapers, and certainly no gym equipment--just a man in a house in an ordinary neighborhood, taking care to board up the windows by day to ward off the attacks of the undead at night.
4. Night of the Living Dead
Wait, does this sound familiar? Of course it does. George Romero's 1968 classic (and still terrifying) Night of the Living Dead, which kick-started the zombie-movie genre, shares The Last Man on Earth's DNA.
Both films are now in the public domain and served up by the Internet Archive, the 12-year-old nonprofit Internet library of freely distributable media. The films are available as iPod-viewable MPEG-4 files or DVD-burnable MPEG-2s.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the third movie adaptation of Matheson's work was 1971's The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston.
5. Directors Notes
Listing Directors Notes here is a bit of a cheat, as the content of this weekly podcast of independent short films could easily appear on YouTube (and sometimes does). The difference is that host MarBelle interviews the creators of every one of these films, providing a look at the creative process for an international roster of filmmakers, each working in different genres and styles. Spend some time poking around the site, and it's like having your own personal indie film festival.
Ad Choices