SHEKHAR KAPUR - KAPUR TO DIRECT MINGHELLA FILM

Director SHEKHAR KAPUR has vowed to finish the movie that British filmmaker ANTHONY MINGHELLA was working on before he died. Minghella, 54, who won the Best Director Oscar for his 1996 movie The English Patient, died from complications following surgery for cancer of the tonsils and neck at London's Charing Cross Hospital last Tuesday (18Mar08). Minghella, who was working on part of a series of short films entitled New York, I Love You, had already asked the Elizabeth director to take on the movie before he went into hospital for surgery. He says, "Anthony, who was doing one, called me one day and said, 'I'm not doing it. I'm ill. You do it.' "Anthony went to the operating table, but did not return. He was 54 and it was not an age to die."