Mel, Jodie Reunite for Beaver

Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster are teaming for their first film together since 1994's Maverick

Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster are giving it another shot.

E! News can confirm that the Hollywood heavyweights, who last costarred in a movie together 15 years ago in Maverick, are set to join forces again for The Beaver.

A quirky comedy drama along the lines of 2007's indie hit Lars and the Real Girl (or, depending on your humor, South Park), the Kyle Killen-penned script follows a down-and-out man (Gibson) who finds comfort wearing a beaver hand puppet. Foster will not only play his wife, but she'll also helm the film, marking her first directing effort since 1995's Home for the Holidays.

Hoping to erase his high-profile 2006 DUI arrest and subsequent anti-Semitic rant from the minds of moviegoers, not to mention distract himself from his pending divorce, Gibson next appears in the forthcoming thriller Edge of Darkness, his first headlining role since 2000's What Women Want.

The Beaver is tentatively slated to start lensing in New York in September.

Here are the other big names taking a spin on the casting couch.

• According to Variety, Nicole Kidman has come aboard to topline Little Bee, an adaptation of Chris Cleave's best-seller for BBC Films, which she'll also produce. The drama centers on the relationship between a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan and a well-to-do British couple she meets after they've strayed outside their vacation resort on an African beach.

• Hot off the success of his breakout hit, The Hangover, Zach Galifianakis will reunite with its director, Todd Phillips, for Due Date, a Planes, Trains & Automobiles-style comedy about an expectant dad who finds himself racing cross-country with an oddball traveling companion (Galifianakis) to get home in time for the birth of his first child. Shooting starts in October, and once that wraps the comedian and helmer will segue into production on The Hangover 2 the following fall.

• Per the Hollywood Reporter, Zooey Deschanel has signed on to star with Danny McBride and James Franco in Your Highness, Universal's comedy about a lazy prince (McBride) who journeys with his more heroic brother (Franco) to save his father's kingdom. The thesp will play Belladonna, Franco's virginal bride.

• Minnie Driver, Rosamund Pike and Rachelle Lefevre have each been cast as one of Paul Giamatti's three wives in Barney's Version, based on Mordecai Richler's novel. Dustin Hoffman costars as the title character's father.

• And finally after numerous screen tests, Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Timberlake are the actors in the final running for Warner Bros.' highly anticipated Green Lantern flick. The studio and director Martin Campbell better get a move on, though, because a holding deal on the thesps expired Monday, meaning they're free to commit to other projects.