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The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (2008) (TV)

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Stars Turn Out for Minghella Funeral
7 April 2008 (WENN)
Hollywood stars Renee Zellweger, Matt Damon, Jude Law and Helena Bonham Carter were among the mourners who paid tribute to director Anthony Minghella at a funeral service on Saturday. Minghella, 54, died from complications following surgery for cancer of the tonsils and neck at London's Charing Cross Hospital in March. The actors joined a diverse mix of guests - including former U.K. royal Sarah Ferguson, British prime minister Gordon Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair - to pay their respects to The English Patient filmmaker at the Thomas More Catholic Church, near Minghella's home in north London. But the service, which followed a private family funeral, was not without its drama - singer/actress Jill Scott, who teamed up with Minghella for the TV movie The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, fainted during the service and had to be carried out by fellow mourners. Paying tribute to his late friend, Law says, "He was a sweet, warm, bright and funny man who was interested in everything from football (soccer) to opera, and, most of all, his family."

Minghella's Final Film Draws Big Ratings in U.K.
25 March 2008 (StudioBriefing)
Anthony Minghella's last film, a TV movie titled The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, was watched by 27 percent of the British television audience Sunday night, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported today (Tuesday) citing unofficial overnight ratings. The film drew 6.3 million viewers, airing on the BBC less than a week after the director's death following cancer surgery.

Oscar Winner Minghella Dead at 54
18 March 2008 (StudioBriefing)
Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, a towering figure in contemporary British cinema, has died at the age of 54, the BBC reported today, citing his publicist, Judy Daish. The cause of death, at first not immediately disclosed, was a fatal hemorrage after undergoing surgery on his neck. Minghella won an Oscar as best director for the 1996 film The English Patient. He received two screenwriter nominations, the first for The English Patient (which he won), and then, three years later, for The Talented Mr. Ripley. In addition, he served as executive producer of last year's Oscar-nominated film Michael Clayton. Minghella had just completed serving two three-year terms as chairman of the British Film Institute, stepping down early this month. In that position he had been a tireless advocate for the British film industry, telling the BBC in 2003: "We're not getting enough movies made here. Our studios aren't busy enough. We don't have enough studios." Informed of Minghella's death fellow British producer David Puttnam, now Lord Puttnam, remarked, "This is a shattering blow from someone who was a major figure in an important industry and had a lot to go on and contribute." His death comes just days ahead of Monday's telecast in the U.K. of his two-hour film, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, about an African woman who heads a detective agency in Botswana. He had been promoting the TV movie as recently as this week, telling one interviewer that it represented "a real labor of love, but lovely labor."

Director Anthony Minghella Dies at 54
18 March 2008 (IMDb News Flash)
Director Anthony Minghella, who won an Academy Award for directing the 1996 epic The English Patient, has died at age 54, his agent announced today. Variety reports that a spokesman for Mr. Minghella said he suffered a brain hemorrhage on Tuesday morning at Charing Cross Hospital in London, while in for a routine neck operation.

A director who worked in theater and television (most notably for the series Inspector Morse and the lush, haunting The Storyteller series), Minghella made his feature film directorial debut with the ghost story/romance Truly, Madly, Deeply, which starred Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman. The film won Minghella a BAFTA award for his screenplay and effectively launched his film career. The little-seen indie romance Mr. Wonderful followed in 1993, but it was three years later that Minghella had his biggest success with The English Patient, an adaptation of the novel by Michael Ondaatje. Aggressively marketed by Miramax and arriving near the height of the independent film movement (though the film, with its epic scope, pushed the definition of indie filmmaking), the film became a surprise success, ultimately taking in $78 million in the US and winning a whopping nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture as well as Director for Minghella. Three of the film's stars, Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliette Binoche, were Oscar-nominated, with Binoche taking home the Best Supporting Actress award in a shocking upset over Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall.

Minghella followed up that success in 1999 with the moody thriller The Talented Mr, Ripley, another book-to-film adaptation based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. Though the film starred high-profile actors Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow, it was the then little-known Jude Law who walked away with the film with his role as a callow, rich playboy. The film earned Law a Best Supporting Actor nomination and Minghella another Adapted Screenplay nod. Minghella tried to replicate his successful literary adaptation formula with Cold Mountain, a high-profile version of the bestselling Civil War novel that, ironically, was filmed partly in Romania. Despite another big (and some said, overly aggressive) push by Miramax and a cast that included Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renee Zellweger, Natalie Portman and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the movie was considered a major under-performer, though it did earn $95 million in the US alone and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Zellweger. Major nominations for Best Picture or Director, however, failed to materialize. Minghella worked on a smaller scale with the London-based drama Breaking and Entering, which reteamed him with both Law and Binoche, and had just completed filming on The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, the pilot for a TV series based on the novel by Alexander McCall Smith. Beginning in 2000, Minghella also became a producer, with credits including The Quiet American, The Interpreter, and the recent Oscar winner Michael Clayton. In 2005, Minghella also staged an acclaimed version of the opera Madame Butterfly, which played at the English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera.

Minghella is survived by his parents, his siblings in the entertainment industry Dominic Minghella and Edana Minghella, two other sisters, his wife, choreographer Carolyn Choa, and two children, Max Minghella and Hannah Minghella. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff