Marvel Enterprises has announced that it has licensed French animation studio Antefilms Productions to produce a 26-episode animated series based on the Fantastic Four.  Antefilms will start work immediately on the 30-minute episodes and the series should be available for worldwide distribution by late 2006.  A Fantastic Four live action feature film is currently slated to debut over the July 4 weekend in 2005 (see 'FF Vs. War of the Worlds).

Marvel's London office set up the deal with the French animation studio, which currently has two series running on American TV -- Code Lyoko on the Cartoon Network and Funky Cops on the Fox Box. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Antefilms will fund all of the development costs for the project.  Antefilms will produce the content, but both companies will oversee the overall creative direction.  Marvel will control the U.S. television and subsequent DVD distribution rights, while Antefilms' distribution arm, Moonscoop, will handle sales in the rest of the world.