The Fan

The Fan follows Gil Renard, a knife salesman whose life has come apart after a divorce and whose passion for baseball has become an obsession. His idol is Bobby Rayburn, a star outfielder who has just signed a lucrative contract with the San Francisco Giants. When Rayburn struggles through a long slump in his first season with the team, Gil takes it upon himself to restore his hero's form, and his efforts grow increasingly extreme.

Tony Scott directed the film, the ninth of the sixteen features he made, arriving between Crimson Tide and Enemy of the State. Robert De Niro plays Gil, with Wesley Snipes as Rayburn and Ellen Barkin, John Leguizamo, Benicio del Toro and Patti D'Arbanville among the supporting cast. Phoef Sutton wrote the screenplay, and Wendy Finerman produced. The film is a British and American production, released in August 1996.

Made for a budget of 55 million dollars, the film returned about 19 million worldwide, a substantial shortfall. On IMDb it holds 5.9 out of 10 from roughly 54,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 out of 10 from around 900 votes, indicating modest audience approval. A critics' rating of 4.8 out of 10 from 29 reviews places it below those audience scores. The large credited cast and crew reflect a sizeable studio production, though the box office result did not match its scale.