CineTel Films has picked up rights to remake I Spit on Your Grave, the 1978 female revenge film that was criticized for its depiction of sex and violence.

According to Variety, the remake rights were owned by Meir Zarchi, who directed, produced and wrote the original.

In the original, a woman is abducted, brutally attacked and raped and then left for dead. She survives, hunts her attackers and dispatches them in graphic ways. Critics, especially Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, hated the film, much to Zarchi's delight.

"The more the film was attacked, the more money shot into my pocket," Zarchi said. "The two persons who contributed most to that, especially in the beginning, were Siskel and Ebert. ... I wouldn't change a frame of it, and I hope the remake is just as controversial."

"As reviled as it was when originally released, "I Spit on Your Grave" was a precursor to a slew of female revenge film hits," Paul Hertzberg said. Contemporary genre fare has become so graphically violent that the original doesn't seem as outrageous as it did 30 years ago. Hertzberg is listening to pitches from writers on how to ratchet up the shock factor.

No production date has been set.