After his 2006 DUI arrest, when he was famously reported as having said series of anti-semitic and sexist slurs to his arresting officers, Mel Gibson was on very thin ice. After the release of directorial effort “Apocalypto,” the actor went underground, only reappearing at the beginning of this year with the lead in the revenge thriller “Edge of Darkness.” While that film underperformed, signs seemed that, to some degree, he’d regained his standing a little; he’s currently filming prison actioner “How I Spent My Summer Vacation,” and was set to reunite with “Lethal Weapon” scribe Shane Black on “Cold Warrior,” as well as direct Leonardo DiCaprio in a Viking movie.
But the film that seemed most likely to complete the star’s comeback was the offbeat comedy “The Beaver.” The script, by newcomer Kyle Killen, topped the Black List in 2008, and Gibson won the lead role — over the likes of Steve Carell, Hugh Jackman and Jim Carrey — of a family man who has a nervous breakdown and starts wearing an English-accented beaver puppet on his hand. Jodie Foster was directing and co-starring, and rising young actors Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence were among the supporting cast. Furthermore, the buzz was building, Summit picked it up, planning a fall release, and reports came in that the film was terrific.
And then came yesterday. Gibson is currently locked in a bitter custody battle with ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, with both parties filing restraining orders against each other. Radar Online managed to get their hands on a tape recorded by Grigorieva in which Gibson can be heard, among many unpleasant moments, suggesting that his then-girlfriend would be raped by a “pack of n—–s,” and threatening to burn her house down.
Now, not many of us needed the confirmation that Gibson was a deeply troubled person, but confirmation seems to have been provided, and we’re not sure there’s any way back from this for the self-destructive star. He was only just starting to rebuild his career, but this seems like a step too far — his aggressive behavior seems like it’ll further alienate the actor’s female fans, and, well, everyone else, bar Michael Richards and Charlie Sheen.
It also leaves Summit with a whopping great problem in the shape of “The Beaver.” As the LA Times points out, the film was a tough sell to begin with, but with a reviled actor in the lead role, it’s more-or-less impossible. Gibson’s role is a huge one, and any suggestion of focusing on Foster or Yelchin in the campaign would be impractical to say the least. The film was all ready to hit the festival circuit later in the year (a bow at Toronto seemed likely), but we’d be very surprised if that happened now.
A best case scenario would seem to be Summit moving the movie into next year, and hoping Gibson manages to somehow redeem himself in the meantime (Rescuing a child from a burning orphanage? Cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico? Blowing himself up on an asteroid, saving the earth?). But to be honest, this’ll either be snuck out to little fanfare on DVD, or a handful of screens, or it’ll languish in the vaults for years; Gibson would have to pull off the mother of all teary Diane Sawyer or Oprah confessionals to come back from this one.