Details regarding director Anthony Minghella's sudden death early this morning are finally emerging, with the official cause of death now listed as a brain hemorrhage, which may have been a result of surgery he had several days ago to remove a growth in his neck. Harvey Weinstein, a longtime collaborator of Minghella's who distributed all five of his theatrical features in the States (ultimately handling his final film, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, as a TV pilot with HBO and the BBC), issued a poignant remembrance to Variety:

He was my mentor, my partner and, most of all, my brother. The grace, joy and tenderness he brought to his films were symbolic of his life and the many people he touched. There are many personal and professional moments we have shared together and I will treasure them for the rest of my life."

Jude Law, who co-starred in Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain and Breaking and Entering, described to The Guardian "a sweet, warm, bright and funny man" who "made work feel like fun." He also kept work in the family, with his actor son Max currently on location in Malta shooting Agora with The Others filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar and his daughter Hannah recently signing on as production boss at Sony Pictures Animation.

In addition to winning an Oscar for directing The English Patient and earning adapted screenplay nominations for that film, Ripley and Cold Mountain, he also directed the opera Madame Butterfly in both London and New York and was set to return to Gotham for more Met libretto-writing duties at an unspecified future date.

We still have unanswered questions, however, about Minghella's segment of New York, I Love You, a short-film anthology surely no longer best known for the travails of Natalie Portman and her doomed Hasidic co-star. Reached by Defamer via phone this morning, a staffer at the film's Beverly Hills production company Beneroya Pictures declined comment on the status or prognosis of Minghella's short or how his death affects the remaining entries.

We'll stay on this just as we wish Minghella's family the best; we hope you'll do both as well.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

• Anthony Minghella Dies at 54 [Source]
• Oscar-winning director Minghella dead [The Guardian]