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"X-Men" could be coming to the small screen. Fox entertainment chairman Gary Newman confirms that a live-action TV series based on the Marvel comic series and feature film franchise is currently in the very early stages of development at FOX.

Twentieth Century Fox holds the rights to the film franchise, but Marvel will have to sign off on the deal in order to bring the characters to television. "It's in negotiations," Newman tells TV Insider. "We're cautiously optimistic, we had a good meeting with them. That will not be on a fast track creatively. This is just the deal, now we have to find the creative."

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that "Star Trek 3" scribes Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne will pen the script for the potential live-action series. They will share a "created by" credit with producers Evan Katz and Manny Coto, who also will serve as showrunners.

Other details of the project are currently unavailable.

Back in April, "X-Men: Days of Future Past" writer Simon Kinberg hinted at a potential "X-Men" live-action series. "We're still in this place of figuring out what the future of the franchise will be, but when you look at 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' to some extent and what Marvel is doing now with 'Daredevil'... it makes sense to tell some of these stories in TV partly because there's just not enough screens to do all these characters, and also because the serialized format of comic books is better suited for TV," he said.

A total of seven "X-Men" movies have been released since 2000 and collectively grossed over $1 billion in theaters. An eighth installment in the mutant superhero film franchise, "X-Men: Apocalypse", is currently in the works for a projected 2016 release with Bryan Singer on board as director.