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Amritraj to co-produce Marvel's animated TV series

     New York: Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj's firm First Serve Toonz has entered into a joint venture agreement with Marvel Entertainment to co-produce 26 half-hour episodes of the New X-Men Series worldwide. The cartoon series will be centered primarily on the popular Wolverine character. The announcement was made by Avi Arad, Chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios, and Ed Borgerding, CEO of First Serve Toonz. FST is a newly created joint venture between First Serve International whose chairman is tennis legend turned entertainment entrepreneur, businessman and UN Messenger of Peace, Vijay Amritraj, and the award winning Toonz Animation India Pvt. Ltd, headed by CEO P. Jayakumar. Under terms of the agreement, FST, which operates its animation studios in India, will begin pre-production immediately on 26 episodes in a 2D-3D combination of characters and background. The initial episodes are expected to be ready for worldwide distribution by summer 2007. First Serve Toonz will produce the Series while both Marvel Studios and FST will oversee the creative direction. International TV and DVD distribution will be managed by FST whereas Marvel retains distribution rights for the United States.

     The agreement was negotiated by Bruno Maglione, 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. Avi Arad stated: "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. 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. Maglione 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."

    Amritraj said he was eager to get Marvel to consider India as a strategic animation production base for its classic Marvel Super Heros. "I am delighted to be working with Avi, Bruno and everyone at Marvel and look forward to a great association." "It is a great pleasure to be working with Marvel and its outstanding creative and management team. Clearly, the opportunity to make a show based on such already world-famous characters as Wolverine and the X-Men is a unique privilege and an exciting prospect both artistically and business-wise" said Ed Borgerding, CEO of First Serve Toonz. "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," said P. Jayakumar, CEO of Toonz Animation Pvt. Ltd.

     With a library of over 5,000 characters, Marvel Entertainment, Inc. - formerly known as Marvel Enterprises, Inc. - is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies. Marvel's operations are focused on utilizing its character franchises in licensing, entertainment, publishing and toys. Areas of emphasis include feature films, DVD/home video, consumer products, video games, action figures and role-playing toys, television and promotions. Rooted in the creative success of over sixty years of comic book publishing, Marvel's strategy is to leverage its character franchises in a growing array of opportunities around the world. For additional information visit www.marvel.com. First Serve International, LLC is a California based company with offices in Los Angeles, London and India, which produces and distributes motion pictures and television programming. First Serve also offers consulting and marketing services to media companies, markets media related products and engages in related businesses such as consumer products licensing.