News courtesy Inside Film. PJ Hogan’s Mental is set to shoot mid-year in Australia. The specific shoot dates are still to be set with star Toni Collette currently pregnant with her second child. “It’s just a matter of timing,” Universal Pictures International Australasia managing director Mike Baard said. Universal has the UK, Australian and New Zealand rights to the film – a comedy set within the world of Muriel’s Wedding and loosely based on Hogan’s own life. Baard raved about the project at last year’s Screen Producers Association of Australia conference, calling it “one of the most incredible scripts we’ve ever read”.

“Out of probably the 300 scripts I’ve read in the last four years it is the best beyond any doubt and that includes a lot of the international productions that we do,” he said at the SPAA conference. “We got involved very early on with CAA, PJ’s agent, and came on board – we negotiated the deal by putting up a very hefty advance for Australia, New Zealand and the UK which is a primary catalyst in getting the film financed.” Muriel’s Wedding grossed more than $15.76 million in Australia in 1994. Mental is expected to be released in 2012.

According to the Herald Sun, Toni Collette will relocate to Australia from Los Angeles after the birth of her next child to reunite with Muriel’s Wedding director P.J. Hogan after his next project was officially given the go-ahead yesterday. A start date of July 4 for the film Mental was revealed by Sean Gesell, vice-president of Zucker Productions. The movie is about a nanny who changes the lives of the family she works for, reports film writer Vicky Roach. “Mental is The Sound Of Music on acid, and it will reunite me with my favourite actor in the world,” Hogan said. Collette is due to give birth to her second child in autumn.

According to encore, Universal Pictures has announced production of P.J. Hogan’s Mental, to be shot in Australia.

Mental is The Sound of Music on acid, and it will reunite me with my favourite actor in the world, Toni Collette

Hogan told the delegates of the Australian International Movie Convention. Hogan said Mental is a film he’s been building up to for a long time, and it will allow him to express his “whinged life-long love of The Sound of Music” the way Muriel’s Wedding explored his “childhood obsession” with ABBA and My Best Friend’s Wedding used the music of Burt Bacharach. Mental will also reunite Hogan with his producers Lynda Moorhouse and Jerry Zucker. It was written for Collette and is based on “somebody that had a big influence” in Hogan’s life. It will be shot in early 2011, for a Christmas/January 2012 release.

According to Variety, Muriel’s Wedding” helmer P.J. Hogan and star Toni Collette are reteaming on “Mental,” about a charismatic, crazy hothead who transforms a family’s life when she becomes the nanny of five girls. Arclight Films is introducing “Mental” to foreign buyers at the Cannes film market. Project was announced by Arclight’s managing director Gary Hamilton.

Hogan begins lensing in Australia in January. He also scripted, inspired by his own experiences. “Like ‘Muriel’s Wedding,’ ‘Mental’ is a comedy, but a comedy based on reality, laced with pain and brimming with flawed but lovable characters. Shaz (the central character) was hilarious, outrageous, dangerous, courageous, inspiring, heartbreaking and totally, totally mad. And she changed my life,” Hogan said. Also producing “Mental” are Todd Fellman (“Daybreakers”) and Jocelyn Moorhouse (“Muriel’s Wedding,” “Peter Pan”). “Mental” reteams Jerry Zucker and Hogan (“My Best Friend’s Wedding”). “We are thrilled to be working with P.J. Hogan again,” the Zuckers stated. “He is an inspirational director, and this is a story that is a part of his life.”