Shockingly, Gibson Not One of Beaver's Many Problems

Star comes out of shell a bit at Cannes, but Foster does most talking

(AP) - A hand puppet has been doing most of the public speaking for Mel Gibson since the release of The Beaver, but the AP notes that the star emerged slightly during the movie's Cannes premiere yesterday. Gibson turned up on the red carpet—after skipping an earlier news conference—and glibly responded when an interviewer asked how he got into his character's dark head space. "I faked it," Gibson said, adding, "Hey, I don't know. It doesn't bear too much analysis." More»

'People have struggles in life,' director says

(NEWSER) - Beaver director Jodie Foster says she has no regrets about casting her old friend Mel Gibson as her co-star, despite the star's headline-grabbing personal life. Foster says she knows moviegoers might be wary of Gibson—who pleaded guilty to domestic abuse last week—but she's willing to defend him. "People have struggles in life," she tells the Los Angeles Times . "Most of us don't have ours expressed on the Internet. I actually don't feel his struggles are that unusual. People say nasty things to cops when they're drunk." More»

None of which will work...

(NEWSER) - Jodie Foster made two mistakes with her latest directorial effort: She named it The Beaver, and she hired Mel Gibson to star in it. Summit Entertainment originally planned to release the movie, about a guy who goes crazy (sound familiar?) and befriends a beaver hand puppet, next year. Now that the studio has a similarly crazy star on its hands, however, how can they best handle the situation? Claude Brodesser-Akner offers up a few ideas in New York : More»

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones return for alien flick

(NEWSER) - Sure, no one was that desperate for a Men in Black 3—but it's actually a pretty good summer movie. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back defending the planet from aliens, and this time, Josh Brolin's along for the ride as a young Jones.

• The movie "turns out to be so much fun," writes AO Scott in the New York Times . While it "carefully fulfills its blockbuster imperatives—with chases and explosions and elaborately contrived plot twists—it swerves into some marvelously silly, unexpectedly witty, and genuinely fresh territory."

Johnny Depp stars in Tim Burton film

(NEWSER) - Critics aren't thrilled with Tim Burton's latest offering, inspired by the late-1960s cult TV show of the same name and starring Johnny Depp as an 18th-century vampire who is buried alive, only to be accidentally dug up in 1972. The film isn't sure what it wants to be:

• Dark Shadows "tries to serve too many masters," writes Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News . "Initially it’s an epic valentine to the show. Then it’s a vamp-out-of-water story. Soon it’s a gung-ho comedy. Finally it's a monster flick." Still, it "unearths enough fun."