We're hearing today about a script setting a new land-speed circulation record among directors' agents, and why not: Who wouldn't savor the chance to have something called The Beaver on their resume? It's just a bonus that Steve Carell is attached, and that he spends all his time with his hand inside said beaver. What could go wrong?

In what's being referred to as a "winning, whimsical" story splitting the difference between Being John Malkovich and Lars and the Real Girl, Carell would portray a man who develops a close relationship with a beaver hand puppet, "treating it as something close to a human creature with human feelings." Every studio around wants it, but producer Anonymous Content is waiting to land a director before actively shopping the project.

On that front, Jay Roach has already turned it down, while other candidates' replies await. Obviously, of course, this sounds like a job for Brett Ratner, whose string of hits speaks for itself and whose finely honed sense of metaphor can only enhance to the multidimensionality of the title character. That is a DVD commentary we would pay good money to hear.

• Steve Carell could make 'Beaver' speak [THR]

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