Oscar-winning writer and film director Curtis Hanson has died at his home in Hollywood at the age of 71.

According to a police report, he died of natural causes. He had been retired in recent years due to Alzheimer's.

Starting as a writer for the magazine Cinema, he later won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for LA Confidential.

He also directed Eminem's Detroit hip-hop movie, 8 Mile.

Officers visited Hanson's home for a "death investigation" and he was pronounced dead at the scene, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Hanson, born in Reno, Nevada, began screenwriting and directing in the early 1970s, but it was only in 1992, with The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, that he found success.

In 1997, he co-wrote the screenplay for LA Confidential from James Ellroy's novel about crime in 1950s Los Angeles.