If you thought that Peter Jackson and Warner Brothers already milked the works of J.R.R. Tolkien far beyond what they were worth with The Hobbit trilogy, you may be rolling your eyes at this next bit of news. The studio is reportedly shopping around a TV series based on The Lord of the Rings books and Amazon is the current frontrunner to land the show. The deal is still at a very early stage, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is personally involved in the negotiations which speaks to how serious they are about this project. Hit the jump to find out what else we know.

According to Variety, Warner Bros. Television and the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien are currently in talks with Amazon Studios to develop a TV series based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Warner Bros. and the Tolkien estate just settled a lawsuit back in July that revolved around the use of characters from the movies in video games and other digital media. The project follows Amazon’s recent mandate to branch out to more “large-scale genre programming with potential for broad international appeal.” Peter Jackson does not appear to be involved in the project at this time.

The big question here is what can be done differently in a Lord of the Rings TV series that hasn’t already been covered in the movies? The extended versions of Peter Jackson’s adaptations are massive in scope and even mined appendices from the books for extra supplemental material. There are other sources like The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales that could be used, but it sounds like this will be just another straight up adaptation of The Lord of the Rings books. No doubt the success of Game of Thrones is driving this project forward, but there are so many other fantasy series that are ripe for adaptation right now it seems silly to revisit this one so soon. Do you have any interest in a Lord of the Rings TV series?