Will Jodie Foster's Beaver Help Mel Gibson Stage a Comeback?

Deadline is wondering whether or not Mel Gibson can turn his career around with the release of his new film The Beaver, which features the controversial star as a father who walks around talking to a—I kid you not— a beaver hand puppet. At first this sounded like another nutso development in Biazarro Mel World, but the film (directed by Jodie Foster) is getting positive early word-of-mouth, and Gibson is even being touted as a possible contendor for a Best Actor Oscar! Deadline considers both sides:

Among the movie's insiders, there seem to be two distinct schools of thought about The Beaver’s release and, understandably, some nervousness. One side says go for it and get it out this year and into contention. The other side worries that there may be other shoes to drop in the Gibson domestic situation and the movie could get caught in the middle after Summit commited to a multimillion marketing campaign and possible Oscar run

Foster recently showed her support for Gibson in a MORE magazine cover story. I don't know about you guys, but I'm just waiting for that beaver to release a tape of Mel spewing some nasty bigoted expletives. Then again, what bad things could you possibly say about a beaver?

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