Mel Gibson movie 'The Beaver' finds a home

Mel Gibson's new movie The Beaver, which saw its release postponed last year following the release of audio tapes that damaged the actor's reputation, will finally receive a premiere in March at a Texas festival.

The South by Southwest music and film festival in Austin, Texas said on Thursday The Beaver will have its world premiere at the event on March 16.

The movie, directed by Jodie Foster, tells of a troubled man (Gibson) who communicates with people by using a handheld beaver puppet. Along with Foster and Gibson, the cast includes Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence.

The Beaver was expected in theatres last fall, but was taken off release schedules when tapes were posted on celebrity website Radaronline.com in July during which a man widely believed to be Gibson rants at his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva during a phone conversation. The man also makes a racist slur in one of the tapes.

The tapes were released when the Braveheart actor was still trying to recover from a public backlash over anti-Semitic comments he made to a police officer in 2006.

While film studios fear their stars falling out of favour with the moviegoing public, the tapes of the conversation with Grigorieva may not have had as much of an impact on Gibson's popularity as once believed.

In August, a 60 Minutes Vanity Fair poll found 76% of people questioned said they would still buy a ticket to a Gibson movie.