TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government on Tuesday distanced itself from a decision to preview an award-winning film on Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine after cinema operators scrapped plans to screen the documentary, fearing backlash from hardliners.

A group of about 40 lawmakers from the conservative Liberal Democratic Party had requested for a preview of the film "Yasukuni" made by Chinese director Li Ying because they feared the documentary could have "distorted content."

"We just conveyed the lawmakers' requests to the film maker, but the company sent letters of invitation to the preview at its own discretion," Culture Minister Kisaburo Tokai told reporters denying that the preview prompted cinemas to cancel plans to show the film

"It is regrettable if it happened as the result of pressure and harassment," Tokai said.

LONDON — Anthony Minghella, a screenwriter, opera director and the Oscar-winning filmmaker of "The English Patient," died of a hemorrhage Tuesday at age 54. Minghella's death came five days before the British TV premiere of his final film, "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency." Spokesman Jonathan Rutter said Minghella died early Tuesday at London's Charing Cross Hospital. Rutter said Minghella underwent surgery last week for a growth in his neck. He said the operation "seemed to have gone well. At 5 a.m. today he had a fatal hemorrhage."

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Heath Ledger's frenzied reinvention of the Joker had fans and colleagues buzzing. His dreadful clown face was seen online by millions, and stood as the goosebump-raising image upon which nearly all early marketing of "The Dark Knight" hinged.

All this, while Ledger was still alive.

Now the Batman archfiend stands as Ledger's next-to-last performance. And while it's not the first, "The Dark Knight" has already emerged as arguably the biggest movie featuring a posthumous role in Hollywood history.

Major stars including James Dean, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Spencer Tracy and Will Rogers had high-profile films released after they died. The deaths of others -- notably Bruce Lee and his son Brandon -- created an eerie allure that heightened interest in their final films.

Yet none had the magnitude of a comic-book franchise with an illustrious 70-year history, and movies in those eras did not arrive with the fanfare of today. Certainly none had the advance word of a delirious, demented turn by an actor completely reimagining of one of Hollywood's greatest villains.