Written by comic-book scribe Ed (THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA) Brubaker and directed by Paul Etheredge (last photo) of last year’s BURIED ALIVE, the John Norris-produced series stars DEATH PROOF’s Zoe Bell as ruthless assassin Eve, who, after receiving a hunting knife through her skull following a compromised hit, sets out to avenge her previous victims by killing the mob bosses who ordered their murders. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’s Lucy Lawless, HELLBOY’s Doug Jones, Fango fave Ted Raimi, Vail Bloom, Brian Poth, Justin Huen and Jake Abel round out the cast.

 

Filming week three of five at an abandoned hospital just east of downtown LA, Bell takes a break from the action (stunt coordinator Ron Yuan is prepping for her to take a five-story fall), and the woman who broke out as Uma Thurman’s stunt double on KILL BILL explains how she landed her leading role here. “My former manager and I went in to meet with Paul, Ed and John,” says Bell, who reteams here with her XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS cohort Lawless, “and they seemed genuinely passionate about making a cool action movie. They spoke a similar language as me and had similar passions about teamwork and creating something brilliant, rather than simply working within the machine. I was [included as] an integral part of the process from early on, and that appealed to me.”

Charming as she was in DEATH PROOF, Bell speaks humbly of her burgeoning acting career. Fresh off wrapping her roles of Bloody Holly alongside JUNO Oscar nominee Ellen Page and director Drew Barrymore in the comedic feature WHIP IT! and Rawhide in Rick Jacobson’s in-your-face BITCH SLAP (on which she also served as stunt coordinator; see previous item here), the New Zealander says her initial trepidation toward the craft has turned to confidence. “I feel like I know I’m capable of doing this, but I didn’t have that deep-set knowledge that I personally get from experience,” Bell says of her entree into the acting ring. “It was the same thing with stunts. I mean, I knew I could kick, I knew I could slip, I knew I could do all of those things. But until I had that experience and earned my chops, I wasn’t comfortable with accepting that.

“DEATH PROOF was the start of it,” she continues, “and [ANGEL] has marked my acceptance of it. It sounds so self-involved, though, to say I’m ‘accepting my fate’ when there are people who’ve been gagging to have the opportunities I’ve had. I totally appreciate that. The thought of acting in conjunction with my action work, because it was an obvious bridge, excited me, and it has interested me since it came up with Quentin [Tarantino on KILL BILL]. But to be honest, there was a genuine fear there too.” (Not enough that it has hampered her: Bell will next appear this September in the sci-fi thriller GAME alongside Gerard Butler and Kyra Sedgwick, and she is also attached to star as a treasure hunter in an as-yet-untitled Senator Entertainment adventure flick.)

It’s a heavy shooting day today, and after discussing playing “Ship’s Mast” at speeds in excess of 60 mph for DEATH PROOF, Fango’s time with Bell is cut short. As she exits to prep for her late-night fall from the hospital’s roof (see our exclusive video clips below), Fango catches up with director Etheredge to find out if ANGEL OF DEATH’s eventual DVD presentation will echo the episodic presentation on Crackle.com. An enthusiastic Etheredge tells us, “No—we’ll be editing the feature first, and then we’ll be breaking it up into episodes and retailoring those [for the web].”

The director previously gave Fango a peek at a rather bloody clip of Jones’ character removing a 4-inch knife from Bell’s skull, and Etheredge says the ANGEL OF DEATH team’s approach to the mayhem is “pretty real. The [1967 John Boorman-directed] film POINT BLANK was our jumping-off point. All of that stuff was very hard. People get hurt; they have the wind knocked out of them. There’s not a lot of jumping around on wires here. It’s all brutal street-fighting.”

This scribe can’t argue, as the day’s shoot also sees Bell indulging in impressive ass-kicking, both on the ground and in the air. Stay tuned for more of Etheredge’s thoughts on ANGEL OF DEATH. (Special thanks to Sarah Rothman of 42West for her assistance.)