Amazon has bought the global television rights to The Lord of the Rings, the company announced Monday, in what may be its biggest and most expensive move yet to draw viewers to its streaming and shopping club Prime.

Amazon said it will produce a multi-season series that explores new storylines preceding author J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment in the famed fantasy trilogy.

Three movies based on the trilogy of books and released in the early 2000s took nearly $3 billion at the box office and bagged 17 Academy Awards.

Amazon acquired the rights from the Tolkien Estate and Trust but did not say how much it paid for them.

The estate, HarperCollins and the films' distributor New Line Cinema will help Amazon produce the television series.