Filmmaker tried to capture beauty of book

NEWTON, N.J., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Anthony Minghella says Charles Frazier's novel "Cold Mountain" is so rich in story and theme he doesn't know if any film could do it justice.

"I don't feel like I am capable of or anybody would be capable of providing a definitive version of 'Cold Mountain,'" Minghella, who directed the movie, told UPI's Karen Butler in a recent phone interview.

"What I feel is I can perhaps create a film which borrows from some of the important elements of the book, which in some ways reinvents itself, but tries always to reflect the beauty of the book, to reflect what I understand prompted Charles to write it."

Minghella, who also wrote the screenplay for the Civil War epic, noted that what a writer sets down in a few lines could take days -- and millions of dollars -- to accomplish in film.

The Writer's Guild of America nominated Minghella's script Thursday for its best adapted screenplay award of 2003.