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Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, who turned such literary works as "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain" into acclaimed movies, has died. He was 54. Minghella's death was confirmed Tuesday by his agent, Judy Daish. No other details were immediately available. "The English Patient," the 1996 World War II drama, won nine Academy Awards, including best director for Minghella, best picture and best supporting actress for Juliette Binoche. Based on the celebrated novel by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje, the movie tells of a burn victim's tortured recollections of his misdeeds in time of war. Minghella (pronounced min-GELL'-ah)...

THE American Civil War was known for its ferocity and bloodshed, but one event, the Battle of the Crater, was unique in its ferociousness. Now its site -- one of a massive explosion followed by mass butchery and slaughter -- is becoming a new highlight on the tourist trail of Civil War memorials and battlefield guided tours. Much of this is because of the horror depicted by the graphic opening scenes of the film Cold Mountain, co-starring Nicole Kidman.It tells how the event unfolded when Union soldiers blasted a gaping crater beneath a Confederate camp outside Petersburg, Virginia, in July,...

BERLIN (Hollywood Reporter) - Miramax Films co-chairman Harvey Weinstein said Thursday he believes the low Oscar-nomination count for "Cold Mountain" was due in part to stories in the U.S. press attacking the moviemakers' decision to shoot the U.S. Civil War drama in Europe and not America. ...

When Oscar nominations are announced this morning, the popular Civil War romance-drama "Cold Mountain" is expected to be competing for multiple awards. If Miramax Films' 155-minute epic, starring Hollywood heavyweights Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renée Zellweger and based on Charles Frazier's National Book Award-winning novel, gets a best picture nod, it will surely make aggressive studio chief Harvey Weinstein happy. But some moviegoers who saw "Cold Mountain" won't be smiling. Erik Todd Dellums, an African-American actor from Washington who has appeared on TV shows such as "Homicide: Life on the Street" and in films like "Doctor Dolittle" with Eddie...

While I don't often visit the surreal cinema, I do make an exception for films about the South. The reason is simply this: The road to national sanity leads through the South. The republic, RIP, can only be revived once the central government – which voided the Constitution to invade the South and, by legal extension, the rest of the once-sovereign states – is driven back. If Hollywood – hugely influential in shaping American lore – begins to get its ducks in a row about Dixie, then there's some hope. The latest epic about the South, sadly, leaves little confidence...

2003 was a big year for Civil War movies. Gods and Generals, based on Jeff Shaara's novel of the same name hit theaters in the spring. Gods and Generals was a paean to the Old Confederacy, reflecting the "Lost Cause" interpretation of the war. This school of Civil War historiography received its name from an 1867 book by Edward A. Pollard, who wrote that defeat on the battlefield left the south with nothing but "the war of ideas." I know from the Lost Cause school of the Civil War. I grew up in a Lost Cause household. I took it...

<p>ASHEVILLE - Director Anthony Minghella said one reason he didn't film "Cold Mountain" in Western North Carolina was that he found the Civil War's harshness elsewhere, in the gaunt, hard faces of Romanian soldiers.</p> <p>Marty Cherrix doesn't believe it. She's a casting director from Canton who found actors for "Cider House Rules," "Domestic Disturbance" and "Chocolat." She also conducted the talent search for the kids who play Wendy and Peter in "Peter Pan," a movie also opening Christmas Day.</p>

Charles Frazier, author of the best-selling novel "Cold Mountain," agreed to sell the Random House Trade Group the rights to publish a new novel for an advance of more than $8 million, people close to the negotiations said Friday. An advance that large is extraordinary for a literary author like Mr. Frazier, and it is even more unusual because he has written only one previous book and presented only a one-page outline of his next work. In addition, the producer Scott Rudin and Paramount Pictures, part of Viacom, have agreed to pay $3 million for the film rights to the...