Sam Raimi, whose Spider-Man is set to become one of the biggest grossing films in history, has teamed with Joe Drake's Senator International to launch a genre label producing "intelligently budgeted" horror, sci-fi and fantasy movies - returning Raimi to his low-budget horror roots of The Evil Dead.

Senator will fully finance and handle worldwide distribution rights on the titles which will be produced by Raimi and his longterm producing partner Rob Tapert.

Raimi and Tapert have been eyeing young directors to bring to the deal as well as projects in development, although no projects were ready to be announced at time of going to press.

"With so much talent out there that we would love to work with, it's very satisfying to be in the business of bringing movie-going thrills to mainstream audiences," said Raimi in a statement. "Rob and I are committed to creating a business that continues to find new fans throughout the world and we couldn't wish for a better sales and financing partner than Senator."

Senator's Nathan Kahane, the company's executive vice president of motion pictures, will oversee the daily creative operations of the new division which was cemented and championed at the company by Drake. Senator International is the sales arm of German independent Senator Entertainment headed by Hanno Huth.