International distributionconsultancy Trans-Pacific Media is making its first foray into production,teaming with Sick-O-Scope Motion Picture and Novelty Manufacturing Company toremake five horror films by cult director Herschell Gordon Lewis.

The companies acquired theremake rights from Jimmy Maslon, who holds rights to most of the Lewis library,and say every project will be budgeted at under $1m.

First up is The Wizard OfGore (1971), which is due to go intoproduction later this year and tells the tale of a performing illusionist witha dark secret.

Jeremy Kasten, who formedSick-O-Scope Motion Picture and Novelty Manufacturing Company with partnersDaniel Gold and Dan Griffiths, will direct.

Kasten said the productionwould involve a simultaneous 3D and 2D shoot while remaining true to the spiritof the original.

He directed 2001's TheAttic Expeditions starring SethGreen, which premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival. Gold andGriffiths produced.

Other titles in developmentinclude Blood Feast, She-Devils On Wheels, Colour Me Blood Red and Gruesome Twosome.

Trans-Pacific Media, whichis run by Laurie Woodrow, has been involved in the international distributionpatchwork of Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Bend It Like Beckham among many others.

Lewis introduced hissignature style of realistic violence and gore in the early 1960s and has beencited as an influence on a host of films from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise.

Topics