It’s been 16 years since Toni Collette and PJ Hogan worked together on** Muriel’s Wedding**, but they’re getting back together for a new comedy, Mental.
The film will see Collette as a crazy, charismatic woman who changes a family’s life when she becomes the nanny to five girls. It might sound like a typical cinematic setup, but it’s based partly on Hogan’s own experience.
"Like Muriel's Wedding, Mental is a comedy, but a comedy based on reality, laced with pain and brimming with flawed but lovable characters," Hogan tells Variety. Shaz (the central character) was hilarious, outrageous, dangerous, courageous, inspiring, heartbreaking and totally, totally mad. And she changed my life," Hogan said.
Jerry Zucker, who has worked with the director before, is behind the movie, which Hogan plans to shoot next January in Australia.