The first trailer for Mel Gibson's The Beaver arrives online

After much debate about the movie's future following the recent controversy surrounding Mel Gibson, the trailer for The Beaver is finally online.

The movie was set to be Mel Gibson's definitive comeback performance, before his phone-rant antics shoved it into release limbo.

The Beaver is now looking at a spring 2011 release, and you can check out the trailer below (that's the new poster above, too).

There are some pretty strong credentials here: it's based on a Black List script, it's directed by Jodie Foster (who also co-stars), and Anton Yelchin ( Star Trek ) and Jennifer Lawrence ( Winter's Bone ) fill out the 'young and hip' quotient.

Check out the trailer here:

It's going to be impossible to completely separate any assessment of this movie from Gibbo's personal affairs, but this could certainly be the film to remind everyone that, yes, the man can act.

We can imagine the promotional junkets being pretty awkward though.

Source: Trailer Addict and /Film

What do you make of the trailer? Is it enough to salvage Mel's career? Tell us!

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.