Confession time: I own Death Proof on DVD. I probably wouldn’t have bought it if it was up to me, but my fiancee pretty much makes all the DVD-buying decisions in our household, because he is better at math and therefore budgets. I have strong feelings about certain things that I want to have, but beyond that, most of our shopping trips go something like this:

Him: Should I get this? It’s $9.99.
Me: Mmm.
Him: I mean, I’m not sure how much I’d actually watch it. But I like the director, so I’d really like to listen to the commentary.
Me: Mmm?
Him: I don’t think I’m going to get it.
Me: Why not?
Him: Okay, I’ll get it.

And so we ended up with Death Proof on our shelf. I’ll readily agree with anyone who wants to complain that the first half was interminable, because dear God was it interminable. But when it snapped into the modern era – and yes, I know it’s all present-day, but you know what I mean – it suddenly became a good movie. And a big part of that was Zoë Bell.

She’s exactly the kind of actress I like: the kind who’s not an actress. She doesn’t “act,” she just is – she is comfortable in her own skin, which is also her character’s skin. She is a stunt performer first and foremost, and Death Proof was her big-screen acting debut. And what a debut.

Since then, she’s been recruited for shows like Lost, plus the upcoming Drew Barrymore directorial feature, Whip It! People are starting to notice her refreshing style, plus: she can do her own stunts. Part of the reason we need stunt performers is because the stunts are dangerous, but another big reason is that they require special training and agility. After doubling for Xena: Warrior Princess and The Bride in Kill Bill, Zoë knows what she’s doing.

And she’s about to hit new media.

Sony just enlisted Ed Brubaker, a comic book writer who’s worked on lines like Batman, X-Men, and Daredevil, to produce a new web series called Angel of Death – and Zoë is set to star. With a production budget of $1 million for ten episodes, Angel will be one of the more expensive web series out there. It’s set to debut on Sony’s video site, Crackle.com.

Zoë will play the title character, an assassin who suffers a head injury that causes her to believe that her victims are “haunting” her. She does the only sensible thing – going after the people who hired her, of course.

This one could be a breakthrough for new media. I’ll be keeping an eye out.

Popularity: 2% [?]