Anthony Minghella dies
On this day in 2008 the Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella dies at the age of 54 in a London hospital one week after undergoing surgery to treat tonsil cancer.Minghella grew up on the Isle of Wight off the English coast his parents were Italian immigrants who ran an ice cream factory.He wrote and directed his first film Truly Madly Deeply for television it was released cinematically in 1990.The story of a woman (Juliet Stevenson) who wills her dead lover (Alan Rickman) to return to her as a ghost the film earned Minghella worldwide attention.
On the basis of its success he signed on to direct his first Hollywood feature the romantic comedy Mr.Wonderful (1993) starring Annabella Sciorra and Matt Dillon.It was the only directorial effort of Minghellas career for which he did not write or co-write the screenplay.After critics panned Mr.
Wonderful Minghella took 18 months to write the screenplay for his next film an adaptation of Michael Ondaatjes acclaimed novel The English Patient.Starring Ralph Fiennes Juliette Binoche and Kristin Scott Thomas the sweeping World War II-era romantic drama won nine Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Minghella who was also nominated for his screenplay.Suddenly among Hollywoods elite directors Minghella worked with another talented cast of actors (including Matt Damon Jude Law Gwyneth Paltrow Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman) on The Talented Mr.
Ripley (1999) based on Patricia Highsmiths chilling mystery novel.The film was extremely well-received and Minghella scored another Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.His next feature Cold Mountain (2003) received mixed reviews despite Oscar-nominated performances by Jude Law and Renee Zellweger (who won for Best Supporting Actress).Cold Mountains 83 million budget was far more than that of any of Minghellas previous movies.
Celebrated for their extraordinary beauty and cinematic scope Minghellas films earned him increasing leverage in Hollywood yet he continued to struggle with studio brass that got cold feet during his ambitious projects.As he told the Times of Londonin one of his last interviews Miramax Films stepped in on all three of his biggest filmsThe English Patient The Talented Mr.Ripley and Cold Mountainafter other studios20th Century Fox Paramount and MGM respectivelybacked out.
Without [Miramax] Minghella told the Times I would have no career.Miramax also co-produced Minghellas next film Breaking and Entering (2006) for which he wrote his first original screenplay since Truly Madly Deeply.Starring Jude Law and Robin Wright Penn the haunting film received mostly positive reviews but faltered at the box office.Also in 2006 Minghella helmed a production of the opera Madama Butterfly.
The Metropolitan Opera later commissioned him to direct and write the libretto for a new work by the composer Osvaldo Golijov which had been scheduled for the 2011-12 season.Early in 2008 Minghellas production company Mirage (which he formed with fellow director Sydney Pollack who also passed away in 2008) signed a three-year first-look deal with the Weinstein Company.At the time of his death Minghella had recently completed work on The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency an adaptation of an Alexander McCall Smith novel that was broadcast on HBO and the BBC.
