Mel Gibson’s return to the big screen will begin in March at the South by Southwest festival. Organizers of the Austin, Texas, multimedia entertainment festival announced Thursday that “The Beaver” will be one of five films that will have their international premieres at the event, commonly known as SXSW. Jodie Foster directed and co-stars in “The Beaver,” which features Gibson as a troubled family man trying to cope with help from an unusual friend – a beaver puppet he wears on his hand.
The film will be shown a week before a limited public release on March 23, with an expansion to more theaters planned on April 8. Its release had been delayed as Gibson dealt with bad publicity from a public breakup with his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. Their split has spawned a bitter custody fight over their infant daughter, as well as investigations into claims of physical abuse by the actor-director and extortion by the Russian musician. Los Angeles prosecutors are still mulling whether to press charges against either Gibson or Grigorieva. It remains unclear whether the Gibson, who last appeared in 2010’s “Edge of Darkness,” will attend South by Southwest.
