Foster to direct Gibson in 'Beaver'

LOS ANGELES, July 10 (UPI) -- Hollywood actress Jodie Foster is set to direct her "Maverick" co-star Mel Gibson in "The Beaver."

Variety.com said Gibson, whose last major big-screen roles were in 2002's "Signs" and "We Were Soldiers," will play a depressed man who finds comfort in wearing a beaver hand puppet.

Foster is to play Gibson's character's wife in the film, which was penned by Kyle Killen and which is tentatively scheduled to start production in New York in September, the entertainment industry trade newspaper said.

Foster, a double Oscar winner who has acted in the films "Taxi Driver," "The Accused" and "The Silence of the Lambs," directed "Little Man Tate" and "Home for the Holidays."

Gibson, the "Mad Max" and "Lethal Weapon" star who won an Oscar for directing "Braveheart," has seen his career eclipsed in recent years by a high-profile drunken driving arrest, his controversial religious beliefs, his separation from his longtime wife and his relationship with his pregnant girlfriend.