Variety’s story on the death of Anthony Minghella has the first details on cause of death, and sadly, it appears that it was unforeseen. The filmmaker apparently “suffered a brain hemorrhage at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning at Charing Cross Hospital in London, where he had undergone a routine operation on his neck.”

Spout interviewed Minghella when his last released film, Breaking and Entering, had its U.S. premiere at the 2006 Denver Film Festival. You can watch that interview above.

UPDATE: The Guardian says the “routine operation” was motivated by “cancer of the tonsils and neck.” The surgery took place last week and the prognosis looked good, until “he developed a haemorrhage last night and they were not able to stop it.”