Amazon to produce ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV series

After six movies that grossed almost $6 billion in theatres, Amazon.com thinks there’s still money to be mined in Middle Earth. The online commerce pioneer said Monday it acquired global TV rights to “The Lord of the Rings” and is working with Warner Bros., publisher HarperCollins and the J.R.R. Tolkien estate on a multi-season series. The new series, available exclusively from Amazon, will explore story lines preceding “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first instalment in the epic trilogy by Tolkien, a British author who died in 1973.