The Hollywood blacklist was not something any writer, actor, director or entertainment professional wanted to find themselves on 60 years ago. It was a list of anyone in Hollywood who had been publicly exposed as having ""communist sympathies,"" connections to those with communist sympathies or anyone who just acted too liberal or progressive. With the country in the midst of the Second Red Scare, anyone who was placed on the Hollywood blacklist was utterly unemployable. Presently, however, whenever someone in the film business talks about making ""The Black List,"" there is an entirely opposite, overwhelmingly positive connotation.
In 2005 Franklin Leonard, then working for Matt Damon's production company Appian Way, decided to send out an e-mail to all the Hollywood bigwigs he knew asking what the best scripts they had read all year were. He then synthesized a list of the scripts ranked according to the number of times each had been mentioned. Leonard then sent this list back out to all the bigwigs he had polled and gave it the subject line ""The Black List."" Since then, the Black List has become an annual tradition in Hollywood that promotes the best scripts that go unproduced each year. The list is frequently an early indicator of Oscar potential. Included on the very first Black List were Diablo Cody's script ""Juno,"" an eventual Oscar winner, and Nancy Oliver's ""Lars and the Real Girl,"" an eventual nominee.
Number two on last year's list was Aaron Sorkin's script for ""The Social Network."" In 2008, ""Inglourious Basterds"" and ""Up In the Air"" were on the list. Knowing how well those scripts performed, you are probably wondering what number one was in 2008. And no, it wasn't ""Inception"" or ""The Hurt Locker."" It was a script simply titled ""The Beaver,"" and it may very well be one of the best movies we never get to see.
A black comedy in the vein of ""Little Miss Sunshine"" and ""Lars and the Real Girl,"" ""The Beaver"" follows Walter Black, a hopelessly depressed husband, father of two and CEO of a failing toy company. Despite a library of self-help books, a pharmacy worth of medication and an expensive therapist Walter can barely manage to do anything other than sleep all day. His teenage son Porter begins to dread every similarity he shares with his father, especially worrying that depression is in his genetics. Porter begins to train himself to be different, and starts courting the head cheerleader and valedictorian at his high school, a girl way out of his league.
With Walter's company on the verge of bankruptcy, his wife kicks him out of the house. After surviving several failed suicide attempts, Walter begins hearing a plush beaver hand-puppet talk to him in a reassuring British accent. The beaver is like no self-help guru Walter has ever heard and actually inspires him to fix his life—so long as he lets the beaver do the talking. Walter then finds that the beaver allows him to communicate with his family and colleagues openly for the first time. Claiming that he is ""under the care of a prescription puppet,"" Walter attempts to rebuild his life, talking exclusively through the British beaver on his hand.
Any script that lands in the top 10 on the Black List is virtually guaranteed to be bought by a studio shortly after the traditional Dec. 11 drop-date for the list. And with ""The Beaver,"" circumstances were no different. Summit Entertainment, an indie studio that had monstrous success with the ""Twilight"" franchise, optioned the rights and fast-tracked production with Jodie Foster directing and acting and Anton Yelchin cast as Porter. At first, rumors circulated that Steve Carrell or Jim Carrey would be starring. Ultimately, in a decision that would come to define the future of the film, Mel Gibson was cast as the lead.
The film wrapped shooting in November of 2009, with early reviewers praising the script as one of the best they had read in years. I've read the script and couldn't agree more. Earlier this year, word spread that Mel Gibson was fantastic in it. All signs pointed to a future Oscar contender. However, it looks unlikely that ""The Beaver"" will be released this year, or possibly ever. No one knows if it will ever see the light of day in the wake of the controversial year Gibson has had. In an interview this past July, the screenwriter Kyle Killen said he doesn't know if or when the film will get released.
Most observers see Summit faced with several options. They could release the film before the end of the year and hope Gibson's present unpopularity won't drastically impact box office numbers or stop the Academy from giving it Oscar recognition. Or, they could wait until next year to release the film in the hopes that the heat on Mel Gibson will diminish and the film won't lose momentum. At worst, Summit's options include sending the film straight to DVD or having it languish on the shelves of Summit's archives for eternity.
I am not a supporter of Mel Gibson. If there wasn't so much buzz about this movie, I would have written it off entirely. But the fact is, ""The Beaver"" isn't a Mel Gibson film. ""The Beaver"" is a collaborative effort between actress and director Jodie Foster, screenwriter Kyle Killen, and numerous other artistic contributors. To let their hard work and success perish on the shelf or even fly by on DVD alone would be a tragedy for both its creators and for audiences everywhere who would miss out on an original and potentially fantastic film. To paraphrase June Cleaver, ""Ward, I'm worried about ‘The Beaver.'""
