Post by Administrator on Oct 17, 2005 7:22:19 GMT -5
According to reports in Variety and a handful of Indian newspapers, a new X-Men animated series is on the horizon, scheduled for a summer 2007 debut.
The series will see Marvel team with Indian animation studio, First Serve Toonz, a joint venture between tennis star Vijay Amritraj’s First Serve International and Toonz Animation India Pvt. Ltd, whose CEO is P. Jayakumar,
First Serve Toonz has already begun production on 26 episodes while will combine 2D and 3D animation. The series will center on Wolverine. Both Marvel and First Serve will oversee the creative direction of the series; FST will manage international and television and DVD distribution, while Marvel will retain the distribution rights in the US, and a relationship similar to that between Marvel and France’s Antefilms, which is producing an animated Fantastic Four series.
“X-Men is one of Marvel’s crown jewels, and it makes sense to focus on the popular Wolverine character for our second animation project,” Marvel’s Avi Arad said in a release. “First Serve Toonz, one of the leading animation houses in the Indian animation market, was a natural choice for our first animation partnership in this creative and talent rich market.
Bruno Maglione, president of Marvel International added: “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 multi-media promotion platform for our character franchises.”
“We are excited about our production deal with Marvel - a cutting edge global leader in children’s entertainment. Kids everywhere love the rough-edged and rebellious Wolverine character, and the X-Men franchise brings a range of themes and characters that appeal to a global audience. This will be a groundbreaking deal for the Indian entertainment industry,” Jayakumar said.
The project will be officially announced by Arad and FST chief executive Ed Borgerding at the annual Mipcom TV trade show in Cannes.
The new series will be the third take on the X-Men in animated form, following the inital animated series which ran from 1992-1997 on Fox for 76 episodes; and X-Men: Evolution, which ran for four seasons (52 episodes) beginning in 2000 on Kids WB, ending in 2003. X3, the third X-Men feature film is currently filming and due in theaters in May of 2006.
The series will see Marvel team with Indian animation studio, First Serve Toonz, a joint venture between tennis star Vijay Amritraj’s First Serve International and Toonz Animation India Pvt. Ltd, whose CEO is P. Jayakumar,
First Serve Toonz has already begun production on 26 episodes while will combine 2D and 3D animation. The series will center on Wolverine. Both Marvel and First Serve will oversee the creative direction of the series; FST will manage international and television and DVD distribution, while Marvel will retain the distribution rights in the US, and a relationship similar to that between Marvel and France’s Antefilms, which is producing an animated Fantastic Four series.
“X-Men is one of Marvel’s crown jewels, and it makes sense to focus on the popular Wolverine character for our second animation project,” Marvel’s Avi Arad said in a release. “First Serve Toonz, one of the leading animation houses in the Indian animation market, was a natural choice for our first animation partnership in this creative and talent rich market.
Bruno Maglione, president of Marvel International added: “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 multi-media promotion platform for our character franchises.”
“We are excited about our production deal with Marvel - a cutting edge global leader in children’s entertainment. Kids everywhere love the rough-edged and rebellious Wolverine character, and the X-Men franchise brings a range of themes and characters that appeal to a global audience. This will be a groundbreaking deal for the Indian entertainment industry,” Jayakumar said.
The project will be officially announced by Arad and FST chief executive Ed Borgerding at the annual Mipcom TV trade show in Cannes.
The new series will be the third take on the X-Men in animated form, following the inital animated series which ran from 1992-1997 on Fox for 76 episodes; and X-Men: Evolution, which ran for four seasons (52 episodes) beginning in 2000 on Kids WB, ending in 2003. X3, the third X-Men feature film is currently filming and due in theaters in May of 2006.