Mel Gibson to Appear in Jodie Foster's Dark Comedy The Beaver

Filming has begun on The Beaver, a movie about a man who suffers a nervous breakdown and starts carrying around a beaver puppet on his hand, pretending it's alive and communicating through the puppet. It's a dark comedy. Mel Gibson will star as the lead character (and the title character), and Jodie Foster will play his wife as well as direct the film.

The plot of The Beaver may sound quite odd for a major Hollywood movie, but the script has been a hot commodity. Topping the unoffical Black List in 2008 (top ten list here), a poll-accrued list of the best unproduced screenplays, The Beaver screenplay, written by Kyle Killen, was just dying to be produced.

The Hollywood Black List (not to be confused with the McCarthy era Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s) tends to skew towards the quirky. Previous Black List Top Ten scripts have included Juno, Recount, and Lars and the Real Girl, which shares some common ground with The Beaver, at least storywise.

The Beaver was originally set to be a Steve Carrell (The Office, Evan Almighty) vehicle, and then Jim Carrey (The Mask, Bruce Almighty) was rumored to tackle the dual roles, however, the part was given to Mel Gibson.

Jodie Foster will play Gibson's wife, who is taken aback by her husband's sudden bout of temporary insanity. Jodie Foster also directs the film. It will be her third movie; her previous two efforts were the well-received Home For The Holidays and Little Man Tate.

Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Heroes) and Jennifer Lawrence (The Bill Engvall Show) round out the cast.

Although the story of a man with a beaver puppet on his hand as a social crutch sounds like a weird, twisted movie, the heart of the story will ultimately be uplifting. If anything, it will be a serio-comic character study on how one man copes with middle age. It certainly sounds gimmicky on the surface, but it may be a dark horse come Oscar season.

Slashfilm has already provided some on-set photos of The Beaver, and it looks like this may be a great comeback role for Mel Gibson, who has had some recent public relations mishaps, including a memorable mugshot for a DUI. The sheer nature of the film, Mel Gibson playing a character who talks via a beaver puppet, should gain considerable buzz once the trailer hits the theatres.

The Beaver is set for a 2010 release date, perhaps later in the year if the producers feel it has Oscar and box office potential.

Sources:
Mystery Man on Film, "Are you on the Black List?"
IMDB.com, "2006 Blacklist"
Slashfilm, "First Look at Mel Gibson's Beaver"
Cast credits provided by IMDB.com