RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil

Leopoldo Serran, the Brazilian screenwriter behind such 1970s art-house hits as "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands," and "Bye Bye Brazil," has died from liver cancer, hospital officials said Thursday. He was 66.

Serran died Wednesday morning, the Ipanema Hospital said in a statement.

A native of Rio de Janeiro, he got his start by adapting Joao Felicio dos Santos' novel "Ganga Zumba," along with screenwriter Rubem Rocha Filho and director Caca Diegues.

The 1963 film, which marked Diegues' directorial debut, is widely considered a classic of Brazil's Cinema Novo movement.

Serran also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1976 feature "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands," adapted from the Jorge Amado novel of the same name. The film sold nearly 12 million tickets, making it Brazil's biggest box-office success ever.

Together with Diegues, Serran also wrote the 1979 feature "Bye Bye Brazil," one of the few Brazilian films to make a splash abroad in the 1970s.

In the 1990s, Serran co-wrote the script for O Quatrilho, which was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign film category in 1996.

He also adapted Fernando Gabeira's "What's This, Comrade," a memoir about Gabeira's participation in the 1969 kidnapping of American Ambassador Charles Elbrick, into the 1997 feature film "Four Days in September."

His last screenplay was 2004's "Onde Anda Voce," or "Where You Walk," directed by Sergio Rezende.

Over the years, Serran also worked on a number of telenovelas and miniseries for the Globo TV network.

Last year, he published a novel entitled "Arara Carioca," or Carioca Macaw.

Serran was born May 6, 1942, in Rio de Janeiro. He is survived by two sons, Guilherme and Paulo; and two grandchildren, Maria Antonia and Julio. He was buried Wednesday at Rio's Sao Joao de Batista cemetery.