I have no idea if this series will be released on US airways at any point in the future, but India’s First Serve Toonz has reportedly landed the rights for a new ‘X-Men’ cartoon. While the article mentions that it’s an ‘X-Men’ cartoon, the quotes make it sound like it they may be taking more of a ‘Wolverine and Friends’ approach to the series…which may not be a bad idea, really. The article also mentions a French ‘Fantastic Four’ cartoon that sounds like it may have something to do with the art that Marvel recently forced CBR to remove from their site.

FST is a newly created joint venture between Los Angeles-based First Serve International–whose chairman is tennis legend turned entertainment entrepreneur Vijay Amritraj–and Toonz Animation India, headed by CEO P. Jayakumar.

Under the terms of the deal, FST is set to begin preproduction in India on 26 2-D/3-D episodes. The first episodes are due for delivery in the summer of 2007. FST will produce the series, and both Marvel and FST will oversee the show’s creative direction. International TV and DVD distribution will be handled by FST, with Marvel retaining the U.S. rights. The agreement was negotiated by Bruno Maglione, the president of Marvel International, Marvel’s London-based subsidiary focused on international opportunities, and builds on a similar agreement with France’s Antefilms Productions for a Fantastic Four animated series. “This is another step in Marvel’s strategy to team with leading animation production houses around the world in order to add a powerful TV animation plank to the coordinated multimedia promotion platform for our character franchises.”

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