The Fan is a 1996 American thriller film starring Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes. It was directed by Tony Scott and based on the novel of the same name by Peter Abrahams. The Fan is a psychological thriller that revolves around the sport of baseball, exploring the overt dedication displayed by some of its fanatics.

Plot summary

Gil Renard, a struggling knife salesman, is a temperamental divorcé who has been neglecting his responsibilities -- namely his young son and his job, which he is on the verge of losing due to poor sales. Gil has a fervent loyalty to his favorite sport, baseball, and his favorite team, the San Francisco Giants. Gil is obsessed with the Giants' newest player, Bobby Rayburn, recently acquired from the Atlanta Braves. He risks his job by attending the opening game of the season while he should be meeting a client. In an attempt to bond with his son, Richie, Gil takes him to the game, but neglects him there.

The extensively hyped Rayburn suffers a chest injury, causing his performance to decline. Fans criticize his inability to live up to their expectations. The frustrated Gil, jobless now, begins to aggressively show his support. He shows his anger to fans who boo Rayburn. Gil's ex-wife, Ellen, is disgusted by his irresponsibility. She tries to stop him from seeing their son. Gil is issued a restraining order. With his job and family lost, Gil again turns to his fanatical love for baseball. He even teaches his boss a lesson by stabbing his car several times for firing Gil, as well as leaving a knife in the hood.

He considers a teammate of Rayburn's, Juan Primo, to blame for his favorite player's slump. Gil confronts Primo in a sauna at a hotel. Rayburn took over Primo's position in center field, but was not permitted to use his lucky number of 11 on his jersey. Primo rudely brushes off the fan, whereuopon Gil murders him with one of his knives. While San Francisco grieves, Rayburn begins feeling guilty for his teammate's death. But he starts playing well again, ending his slump. Gil, convinced that what he did was a service to Rayburn and the Giants, becomes even more personal with his fanaticism. He comes to Rayburn's beach house and unexpectedly helps save the player's son from drowning.

After pretending to have only a passing interest in the sport, Gil persuades Rayburn to play a friendly game of catch on the beach. Rayburn says he stopped caring about the game after the death of Juan Primo because there were more important things in life. He makes the mistake of telling Gil that he lost respect for the fans, remarking on their fickle nature. Gil's temper rises. He speaks his mind on the matter, slightly disturbing Rayburn, especially when Gil takes off his jacket to reveal underneath Rayburn's #11 Atlanta Braves jersey, and wonders if Rayburn is happy that Primo's not around.

Rayburn discovers to his horror that Gil has kidnapped his son and is fleeing in his Hummer, as well as finding a piece of his teammate's branded shoulder with a number 11 on it in his freezer. Disillusioned with Rayburn's disrespect towards the fans, Gil spirals further into insanity. He acts as though Rayburn's son is his own. He drives to see an old friend, Coop, a catcher that Gil spoke often of playing baseball with in his past. Coop is killed by Gil, who tried to help Sean escape, but not before he reveals that the only time the two ever played together was in Little League.

Gil takes Rayburn's son to a baseball field and hides him there. He contacts Rayburn to make one demand: hit a home run in the upcoming game, dedicating it to Gil, "a true fan," or he will kill Rayburn's son. With the police on high alert, Gil enters the Giants' stadium in the midst of an on-and-off thunderstorm. Rayburn struggles with his emotions while at bat. After several pitches, he finally hits the ball deep into the outfield but not over the fence. Rayburn attempts to score an inside-the-park home run. He is called out, even though he is obviously safe. Rayburn begins to argue with the umpire, who turns out to be his son's kidnapper in disguise.

Rayburn knocks Gil to the ground. Dozens of police swarm onto the field, pointing their firearms at the maniacal Gil Renard. Before they arrive, Gil kills another Giants baseball player, Lanz (John Kruk), who comes after him. Despite warnings from the police, Gil goes into an exaggerated pitching motion with a knife in hand. He asks Rayburn if he cares about baseball, but realizes he cares "just a little bit". He is shot dead as he is about to throw the knife. Police discover Rayburn's son at the Little League baseball field. They uncover his obsession with Rayburn, as hundreds of newspaper clippings adorn the deranged fan's hideout. Gil is pictured in his past glory as an adolescent, playing Little League ball.

Cast

Robert DeNiro as Gil Renard

Wesley Snipes as Bobby Rayburn

Benicio del Toro as Juan Primo

Ellen Barkin as Jewel Stern

John Leguizamo as Manny

Patti D'Arbanville as Ellen Renard

Charles Hallahan as Coop

Box office

The film brought in $18,626,419 in the United States and Canada.

See also

The Fan (soundtrack)

List of American films of 1996

References

External links

The Fan at Yahoo! Movies

Category:1996 films Category:American films Category:Baseball films Category:English-language films Category:Films based on novels Category:Films directed by Tony Scott Category:Films shot anamorphically Category:Psychological thriller films Category:San Francisco Giants Category:TriStar films Category:Scott Free productions Category:Films set in San Francisco, California

Name	Tom Cruise
Caption	Cruise on MTV Live in December 2008
Birth name
Birth date	July 03, 1962
Birth place	Syracuse, New York, U.S.
Occupation	ActorProducerWriterDirector
Years active	1981–present
Spouse	Mimi Rogers (1987–1990)Nicole Kidman (1990–2001)Katie Holmes (2006–present)
Website	TomCruise.com

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (; born July 3, 1962), better known by his screen name of Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won three Golden Globe Awards. His first leading role was the 1983 film Risky Business, Since 2005, Cruise and Paula Wagner have been in charge of the United Artists film studio, with Cruise as producer and star and Wagner as the chief executive. Cruise is also known for his controversial support of and adherence to the Church of Scientology.

Career

Acting

1981–1994

Cruise first appeared in supporting roles the 1981 films Endless Love and Taps, the latter in which he played a crazed military school student. His first starring role was in the 1983 comedy Losin' It. That same year he appeared in All the Right Moves and Risky Business, which has been described as "A Generation-X classic, and a career-maker for Tom Cruise", and which along with 1986's Top Gun, cemented his status as a star.

Cruise followed up Top Gun with The Color of Money, which came out the same year, and which paired him with Academy Award-winner Paul Newman. 1988 saw him star in Cocktail, which earned him a nomination for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor. Later that year he starred with Academy Award-winner Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, which won the Academy Award for Best Film and Cruise the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. Cruise finished the decade by portraying real-life paralyzed Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic in 1989's Born on the Fourth of July, in which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Actor, a nomination for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Cruise's first Best Actor Academy Award nomination.

In 1994, Cruise starred along with Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater in Neil Jordan's , a gothic drama/horror film that was based on Anne Rice's best-selling novel. The film was well received, although Rice was initially quite outspoken in her criticism of Cruise having been cast in the film, as Julian Sands was her first choice. Upon seeing the film however, she paid $7,740 for a two-page ad in Daily Variety praising his performance and apologizing for her previous doubts about him. In 2005, Cruise worked again with Steven Spielberg in War of the Worlds, which became the fourth highest grossing movie of the year with US$591.4 million worldwide. Also in 2005, he won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Movie Star, and the MTV Generation Award. Cruise was nominated for seven Saturn Awards between 2002 and 2009, winning once. Nine of the ten films he starred in during the decade made over $100 million at the box office. Cruise acts as a producer and star in films for United Artists, while Wagner serves as UA's chief executive. Production began in 2007 of Valkyrie, a thriller based on the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler. The film was acquired in March 2007 by United Artists. On March 21, 2007 Cruise signed on to play Claus von Stauffenberg, the protagonist. This project marks the second production to be greenlighted since Cruise and Wagner took control of United Artists. The first was its inaugural film, Lions for Lambs, directed by Robert Redford and starring Redford, Meryl Streep and Cruise. Lambs was released on November 9, 2007, Rogers is generally believed to have introduced Cruise to Scientology. They separated in February 2001 when Kidman was three months pregnant; she later miscarried.

In 2006, Premiere ranked Cruise as Hollywood's most powerful actor, The Church of Scientology has stated that taping of confessional sessions is done openly, for monitoring and training purposes, and that the confidentiality of anything discussed in such sessions is "sacrosanct".

Cruise's more open attitude to Scientology has been attributed to the departure of his publicist of 14 years, Pat Kingsley, in March 2004. He replaced her with his sister, fellow Scientologist Lee Anne DeVette, who served in that role until November 2005. He then replaced her with Paul Bloch from the publicity firm Rogers and Cowan. Such restructuring is seen as a move to curtail publicity of his views on Scientology, as well as the hard-sell of his relationship with Katie Holmes backfiring with the public.

Oprah Winfrey Show incident

.]] Cruise has made several expressions of his feelings for Holmes to the media, most notably the "couch incident" which took place on the popular The Oprah Winfrey Show of May 23, 2005. Cruise "jumped around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell to one knee and repeatedly professed his love for his new girlfriend." The phrase "jumping the couch", fashioned after "jumping the shark", is used to describe someone "going off the deep end" in public in a manner extreme enough to tarnish his or her reputation. It enjoyed a short-lived popularity, being chosen by the editors of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang as the "slang term of the year" in 2005 and by the nonprofit group Global Language Monitor as one of its top phrases for the year.

The "couch incident" was voted #1 of 2005's "Most Surprising Television Moments" on a countdown on E! and was the subject of numerous parodies, including the epilogue of Scary Movie 4, an episode of South Park, a short on Sesame Street, and an episode of Family Guy. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Lesson learned: Tell, don't show."

In early May 2008, Cruise reappeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to celebrate 25 years in the film business. The feature was a two hour special, the first hour was Oprah spending the day with Cruise at his house in Telluride, Colorado on May 2.

Litigation

During his marriage to Nicole Kidman, the couple endured public speculation about their sex life and rumors that Cruise was gay. In 1998, he successfully sued The Daily Express, a British tabloid, which alleged that his marriage to Kidman was a sham designed to cover up his homosexuality. In May 2001 he filed a lawsuit against gay porn actor Chad Slater. Slater had allegedly told the celebrity magazine Actustar that he had had an affair with Cruise. Both Slater and Cruise denied this, and in August 2001 Slater was ordered to pay US$10 million to Cruise in damages after Slater declared he could not afford to defend himself against the suit and would therefore default. Cruise also sued Michael Davis, publisher of Bold Magazine, who alleged but never confirmed that he had video that would prove Cruise was gay. The suit was dropped in exchange for a public statement by Davis that the video was not of Cruise, and that Cruise was heterosexual.

After The Beast's publication of their 50 Most Loathsome People of 2004, which included Cruise, Cruise's lawyer Bertram Fields threatened to sue. Seeing the opportunity for nationwide exposure, The Beast actively encouraged the lawsuit. No lawsuit was ever filed and Cruise was included more prominently in the 2005 list. In 2006, Cruise sued cybersquatter Jeff Burgar to obtain control of the TomCruise.com domain name. When owned by Burgar, the domain redirected to information about Cruise on Celebrity1000.com. The decision to turn TomCruise.com over to Cruise was handed down by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on July 5, 2006.

Filmography

See also

Tom Cruise (disambiguation)

Brat Pack (actors)

List of people from Louisville, Kentucky

List of Scientologists

Supercouple

(1998)

(2006)

Trapped in the Closet (South Park)

200 (South Park)

References

External links

Tom Cruise on Facebook

Transcript of the Matt Lauer interview

Rolling Stone Interview: "The Passion of the Cruise"; 08/11/04

Tom Cruise at Rotten Tomatoes

Category:1962 births Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from New York Category:American actors of English descent Category:American actors of German descent Category:American actors of Irish descent Category:American expatriates in Canada Category:American film actors Category:American film producers Category:American Scientologists Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Converts from Roman Catholicism Category:Living people Category:Mission: Impossible Category:People from Syracuse, New York

Name	Monica Bellucci
Caption	Monica Bellucci at the Women's World Award 2009
Birth name	Monica Anna Maria Bellucci
Birth date	September 30, 1964
Birth place	Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy
Death date
Occupation	Actress and fashion model
Years active	1990 – present
Spouse	Claudio Carlos Basso (1990 – ?) Vincent Cassel (1999 – present)

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (born 30 September 1964)(short film for Intimissimi) | L'inafferrabile/ La passionale / L'indecisa / La curiosa / L'aggressiva / La mamma / La premurosa | |- | Manuale d'amore 2(Capitoli successivi) | Lucia | |- | Shoot 'Em Up | Donna Quintano | |- | Le deuxième souffle | Manouche | |- |rowspan="2"|2008 | Sanguepazzo | Luisa Ferida | |- | L'uomo che ama | Alba | |- |rowspan="4"|2009 | Don't Look Back | Jeanne | |- | The Private Lives of Pippa Lee | Gigi Lee | |- | Baarìa – La porta del vento | Bricklayer's girlfriend | |- | Omaggio a Roma | Tosca | |- |rowspan="2"| 2010 | The Whistleblower |Laura Levin |- | The Sorcerer's Apprentice | Veronica | |- |rowspan="1"| 2011 | A Burning Hot Summer | | |}

References

External links

Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:Italian film actors Category:Italian female models Category:Italian agnostics Category:University of Perugia alumni Category:People from Città di Castello

Name	Anthony Minghella
Birth date	January 06, 1954
Birth place	Ryde, Isle of Wight, England
Death date	March 18, 2008
Death place	London, England
Years active	1981–2008
Other names	Anthony Minghella CBE
Occupation	Director, producer, screenwriter, actor
Spouse	Carolyn Choa

Anthony Minghella, CBE (6 January 1954 — 18 March 2008) was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007.

He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The English Patient (1996), which also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film and Golden Globe Award for Best Director.

Early life

Minghella was born on the Isle of Wight at Ryde, the son of Gloria (née Arcari) and Edward Minghella, ice cream factory owners. His father was Italian/Scottish and his mother came from Leeds; her ancestors originally came from Valvori, a small village in the Lazio region of central Italy. Minghella attended St John's College (Portsmouth) and Sandown Grammar School (from 1970 Sandown High School). He was a graduate of the University of Hull, where he completed undergraduate and postgraduate courses, but eventually abandoned his doctoral thesis.

Career

His first piece of produced work was a 1975 stage adaptation of Gabriel Josipovici's Mobius the Stripper and it was his 1985 piece Whale Music that kickstarted his career. He made his directorial debut with a double bill of Samuel Beckett's Play and Happy Days. His first feature film as a director was A Little Like Drowning in 1978.

During the 1980s, he worked in television, starting as a runner on Magpie before moving into script editing the children's drama series Grange Hill for the BBC and later writing The Storyteller series for Jim Henson. He also wrote several episodes of the ITV detective drama Inspector Morse and an episode of long-running ITV drama Boon. His 1986 play Made in Bangkok found mainstream success in the West End.

Minghella won radio success with a Giles Cooper Award for his radio drama Cigarettes and Chocolate first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1988. It was revived on 3 May 2008 as a tribute to its author director following his death. His production starred Juliet Stevenson, Bill Nighy and Jenny Howe. His first radio play Hang Up, starring Anton Lesser and Juliet Stevenson, was revived on 10 May 2008 as part of the BBC Radio 4 Minghella season.

Minghella's 1990 feature Truly, Madly, Deeply, a drama he had written and directed for the BBC's Screen Two anthology strand, bypassed its expected TV broadcast and received a cinema release. In order to make the film, he had turned down an offer to direct another episode of Inspector Morse, which he had thought would be a much higher-profile assignment.

In 1996, he won the Academy Award for Directing for The English Patient. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay for 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley.

The pilot episode of the television adaptation of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which he co-wrote and directed, was broadcast on BBC One shortly after his death on 23 March 2008; it was watched by 6.3 million viewers.

He vocally supported I Know I'm Not Alone, a film of musician Michael Franti's peacemaking excursions into Iraq, Palestine and Israel.

He directed a party election broadcast for the Labour Party in 2005. The short film depicted Tony Blair and Gordon Brown working together and was criticised for being insincere: "The Anthony Minghella party political broadcast last year was full of body language fibs", said Peter Collett, a psychologist at the University of Oxford. "When you are talking to me, I'll give you my full attention only if I think you are very high status or if I love you. On that party political broadcast, they are staring at each other like lovers. It is completely false."

He returned to radio drama in 2006 with Eyes Down Looking on BBC Radio 3, starring Jude Law, Juliet Stevenson and David Threlfall to mark Samuel Beckett's 100th birthday celebrations.

Minghella made his operatic debut directing Puccini's Madama Butterfly. It was first seen at the English National Opera in London in 2005, at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius in March 2006 and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in September 2006. The Anthony Minghella Theatre at the Quay Arts Centre on the Isle of Wight is named in his honour. Minghella also made an appearance in the 2007 film Atonement, playing a television host interviewing the novelist whose role was central to the story. Minghella died the day the film was released on DVD.

Minghella's last work was the screenplay of the film adaptation of the 1982 Tony Award-winning musical Nine, based on the film 8½, book by Arthur Kopit, score by Maury Yeston. Minghella worked with Michael Tolkin on the screenplay, with whom he shared credit.

Personal life

Minghella was married to Hong Kong–born choreographer Carolyn Choa. His brother, Dominic Minghella, is the creator of the popular British television series Doc Martin, and also a successful scriptwriter. His son, Max, is an actor. His daughter Hannah worked as a production assistant on The Talented Mr. Ripley, and is currently President of Sony Pictures Animation. His sister Loretta is Director of Christian Aid, his sister Edana participated in a jazz event on the Isle of Wight, and his nephew Dante is one of the participants in Channel 4's Child Genius series.

He was a big Portsmouth fan and appeared in the Channel 4 documentary Hallowed Be Thy Game. His home had two double bedrooms dedicated to the display of Portsmouth memorabilia dating back to the club's founding in 1898.

Death

Minghella died of a hemorrhage on 18 March 2008 in Charing Cross Hospital, London, following an operation the previous week to remove cancer of the tonsils and neck.

Filmography

Director

Producer

Actor

Selected plays

Whale Music (New End Theatre, Hampstead, June 1981); revived for radio, BBC Radio 4, 10 May 2008

Two Planks And A Passion (Greenwich Theatre, November 1984)

A Little Like Drowning (Hampstead Theatre, July 1984)

Made In Bangkok (West End debut as a playwright, Aldwych Theatre. 18 March 1986, director Michael Blakemore)

Hang Up (radio play for BBC Radio 4,1987)

Cigarettes and Chocolate (60-minute radio play for BBC Radio 4, 1988)

Eyes Down Looking (Beckett 100th Birthday tribute, radio play for BBC Radio 3, 1 April 2006)

Awards

1984 Plays and Players: Critics Award - Most Promising Playwright for A Little Like Drowning

1986 Plays and Players: Critics Award - Best New Play for Made in Bangkok

1988 Giles Cooper Award for the radio play Cigarettes and Chocolate

1992 BAFTA Film Award - Best original screenplay for Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990)

1997 Academy Award - Best director for The English Patient (1996)

1997 BAFTA Film Award - Best film for The English Patient (1996) (shared with Saul Zaentz)

1997 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards - Best Director and Best Screenplay for The English Patient (1996)

1997 Directors Guild of America Award - Outstanding Achievement in Motion Pictures for The English Patient (1996)

1999 National Board of Review Award - Best Director for The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

2003 National Board of Review Award - Best Adapted Screenplay for Cold Mountain (2003)

2006 Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production for ENO production of Madama Butterfly

References

Theatre Record and its Indexes for play production dates and awards

External links

Media Masterclass with Anthony Minghella on Directing Film

Anthony Minghella: A Life in Pictures, BAFTA webcast, 2 December 2006

Anthony Minghella interview with stv, November 2006

Anthony Minghella - Obituary and public tribute

Anthony Minghella, a brother to all he met by Dominic Minghella, 24 March 2008

An Appreciation of Anthony Minghella by Charlie Rose, 24 March 2008

Anthony Minghella, my teacher, my friend, by Harvey Weinstein, The Times, 10 April 2008

Anthony Minghella remembered by Jude Law , The Observer, Sunday 14 December 2008

Minghella musical discovered, BBC Humberside.

Obituaries:

*BBC, 18 March 2008

*The Guardian, 18 March 2008

*Variety, 18 March 2008

The Guardian, 19 March 2008

*The Daily Telegraph, 19 March 2008

*The Times, 19 March 2008

*The Independent, 19 March 2008

*The New York Times, 19 March 2008

*Los Angeles Times, 19 March 2008

*The Washington Post, 19 March 2008

In memoriam Anthony Minghella

Minghella Movie Marathon, BBC, updated 25 March 2009, accessed 22 July 2009.

Minghella Movie Marathon , at British Film Institute, accessed 22 July 2009.

More stars join Minghella marathon, iwcp.co.uk, 4 March 2009, accessed 22 July 2009.

Anthony Minghella's family celebrates his memory with film festival, Syma Tariq, The Guardian, guardian.co.uk, 12 March 2009, accessed 22 July 2009.

A concert in memory of Anthony Minghella, Quay Arts, Whale Music Concert, accessed 22 July 2009.

A movie in memory of Anthony Minghella, Vivendi Entertainment, New York, I love you, accessed 15 August 2010.

Category:English film directors Category:English screenwriters Category:English television writers Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Director Academy Award winners Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners Category:Alumni of the University of Hull Category:English people of Italian descent Category:English people of Scottish descent Category:People from Ryde Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Cancer deaths in England Category:Italian British film directors Category:Patrons of schools Category:1954 births Category:2008 deaths