'Angel of Death' Summoned By Spike TV, DVD To Follow

It’s safe to say that Crackle’s action-packed Angel of Death makes the short list of this year’s hit web series. Ed Brubaker‘s gritty stunt-filled masterpiece, starring stuntwoman-turned-actress Zoe Bell as a ruthless assassin looking to right the wrongs of her mercenary past, has already racked up over 5 Million views since its launch on March 2nd.

Today comes news out of Sony that the 10-part web series has been picked up by cable network Spike TV to air as a 90-minute feature film on July 25th. Three days the DVD will be released, will plenty of Bell,  Lucy Lawless, Doug Jones and friends.

Critically well received, the series is by and large the most successful to date for Crackle, which traditionally had been churning out mostly comedy and hosted faire. The production, directed by Paul Etheredge, had the feel of an ample budgeted indie film when we headed to set last fall to see what all the fuss was about. The transition from multi-part web series to contained feature should be fairly seamless.

“This is a model we plan on following,” SVP of Digital Networks for Sony Pictures Television Eric Berger said. “The market for Web video is evolving. People have an appetite for higher quality video. Advertisers certainly do.”

Sony has been shaking things up this year at Crackle— new logo, adding full-length movies, and consolidating operations down in Los Angeles and shuttering its (fka Grouper) offices in San Francisco. So far, that seems to be bearing fruit. Total streams on the site are up 84% in the first quarter. At some point Sony’s $65 Million acquisition of the former P2P sharing site will start paying off.

Meanwhile Spike TV has been agressive in its penchant for hot web properties, recently nabbing comedy series MoCap LLC and James Gunn’s PG Porn earlier this year.