Occasionally Hollywood cobbles together random members of the A-list to play family members on film, even if their genes obviously come from opposite ends of the earth. If the actors are good enough or if the chemistry is there, sometimes the combo can work, such as Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman as brothers in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead or Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor in Cassandra's Dream. Other times, it stretches credibility, such as Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman in The Darjeeling Limited. My all-time favorite oddball casting is in Sidney Lumet's Family Business (1989), with Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick playing grandfather, father and son. (Huh?) At the same time, there are actor combos out there who just scream to be paired up in a family capacity. Remember Julia Roberts and Kyra Sedgwick in Something to Talk About? Well, neither do I, but that pairing was perfect. Here are a few others that could work:

1. Helen Hunt & Leelee Sobieski

They're so similar it's spooky, from their hair and foreheads, right down to the tonal quality of their voices. Anybody check the hospital records for mixed-up babies? (Helen is about 20 years older.) Not too long ago, both careers hit a peak: Helen won an Oscar while Leelee was working with Stanley Kubrick and playing Joan of Arc on TV. Now they're both in decline. For some reason, whenever Helen's name comes up, I hear "I HATE Helen Hunt!" And Leelee's last movie was for Uwe Boll. Now would be the perfect time for these two to team up in a mother-daughter drama. If they cooked up something along the lines of Terms of Endearment, with a good, solid writer and/or director, it could be interesting. Or better yet, how about something really strange and kooky with Spike Jonze or Harmony Korine? (Note: apparently the two once went head-to-head on "Celebrity Death Match.")

Gallery: Actors who could play relatives

I'm slightly mistrustful of titles that include exclamation points. They always remind me of the musical version of The Elephant Man, Elephant!, in The Tall Guy ("... there's an angel with big eeears..."). But in the case of Mamma Mia!, I'm actually surprised the title only included one exclamation point -- you can imagine the filmmakers or the creators of the stage version embracing even more emphatic punctuation, just to let you know that This! Is a Musical! And also Wacky!! As if chorus lines of men in flippers, Meryl Streep waving a feather boa, and enough ABBA music to sate the leads of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert wouldn't have clued you in.

The movie, like the stage musical it's adapted from, is essentially and unabashedly an extended gimmick -- an excuse to sing and perform songs that originated from the Swedish musical group ABBA. Characters spontaneously burst into song not because they're aspiring performers (Chicago), or because their singing is meant as a melodious soliloquy (Sweeney Todd), but because the situation or their emotional state reminds them of an ABBA song (sometimes more tangentially than others), and they decide to share it with everyone. I've had friends like this in real life, although that seems to have been a college-age thing.

Even when I started following the industry obsessively, I always wondered how it came to be that by October or November of each year, there would always be a fairly clear picture of who the Oscar "frontrunners" were, which films were falling out of the race, and sometimes even which movies are "locks" in certain categories I figured the buzz had to start somewhere -- and that to some extent, the tail had to be wagging the dog.

Maybe it starts with glowing advance Hollywood Reporter reviews. Consider Ray Bennett on Meryl Streep in the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, due July 18th: "Streep is sensationally good in rendering the whole yarn credible and in making dramatically moving songs such as 'Slipping Through My Fingers,' sung to her departing daughter, and 'The Winner Takes It All' to a lost love. It's no stretch to think of her performance in Oscar terms, ranking with previous musical winners such as Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and Catherine Zeta-Jones."

So: is this that fabled "Oscar buzz" we keep hearing about, or just one dude sounding off about a movie he liked? Is this the first step toward Streep being a "Best Actress lock" come December? I wouldn't have put Mamma Mia! (or, for that matter, The Dark Knight) on my Oscar shortlist a few months ago -- looks too silly! The release date's all wrong! But I guess now that I've read The Hollywood Reporter, I'm supposed to think it's a contender. Right?

Or did you know that all along?

Liu Xing (Ye Liu) has come from Beijing to a nameless American university to pursue a PhD in cosmology; he's done smart, incisive work in the field, and he's being given the chance to work for groundbreaking theorist Dr. Reiser (Aidan Quinn). It's a wonderful moment for Xing; he's found opportunity, and a place that will gratefully take everything he has to offer. The feature-film debut of opera director Chen Shi-Zheng, Dark Matter follows Xing as his dream, slowly and gradually, becomes a curse -- and shows us the desperate, dangerous expression of Xing's sadness and confusion.

Written by Billy Shebar, Dark Matter is inspired by the University of Iowa shootings of November, 1991, where physics post-graduate student Gang Lu killed five people and paralyzed another for life before killing himself. But Dark Matter isn't a ticking-clock thriller; it's a more contemplative film than that. The camera captures big visions and images, and it isn't concerned with the nuts-and-bolts shots of a crime story. Instead, we see Xing, in the rain, transfixed by a statue of famed American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Xing wants to look to the skies. Of course, he still has to live on Earth. ...

While it may have had an all-star cast boasting the likes of Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise, Lions for Lambs appeared without a splash. In fact, it hit audiences with a dull and disappointing thud. Honestly, that partially surprises me, partially doesn't, and partially disappoints me. The film is by no means a masterpiece, nor is it a powerful and hard-hitting political thriller, action film, or drama. However, it does pack a punch against apathy and disinterest, and does so with a passionate and measured hand.

The film focuses on three main interactions – the journalist (Streep) and the politician (Cruise), the professor (Redford) and the student (Andrew Garfield), and the two soldiers and old friends (Michael Pena and Derek Luke), who are in Afghanistan. Each character provides a face to an aspect of today's current war-filled society -- one that brings it out of abstract thought and the printed word.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive clip from the film Dark Matter, starring Liu Ye, Meryl Streep and Aidan Quinn. This one is a pretty crazy story; it was inspired by the actual events surrounding a Chinese student who travels to the United States in search of a bright future in American science. But when he has a hard time navigating academic politics, he slowly loses his way (and his mind). Dark Matter premiered at the Sundance Film Festival two years ago (where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize), and I've heard nothing but good things about it. For more, you can check out a Moviefone Unscripted segment with Aidan Quinn, Liu Ye and director Chen Shi-Zheng (renowned opera and theater director making his feature film debut).

Dark Matter arrives in theaters on April 11.

Now you can take your pick! Back in December, the first trailer for Mamma Mia came out. It started off with a slow and pensive song as Amanda Seyfried sailed against the dark deep blue and sent off three letters, before the teaser pumped up with three potential dads, played by Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, and Stellan Skarsgard, and a rendition of the classic Abba tune.

Now we've got the traditional long-form trailer courtesy of Yahoo, and it lays out the whole story. Unfortunately, it does so with that pesky-over-used voice over that always amps up the cheese. Nevertheless, there's lots more of risque, swingin' mamma Meryl Streep, a longer look at the tacky retro-wear from the musical's finale, and all the little bits that set up the story. And, if you're a fan of Abba, or the musical, there's lots of little music nibbles stretched throughout the trailer, from "Mamma Mia" to "Dancing Queen."

Although I'm pretty picky about musicals, I liked this one when I saw it years ago; but I have to admit, the only reason I want to see this as a movie is to see Streep perform Abba tunes in tacky garb. But, maybe like the stage version, it will win me over. What about you? Are you ready to jump up and dance with Abba in the theaters this July?

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Dark Matter (click on the image above for a larger version), starring Liu Ye, Meryl Streep and Aidan Quinn. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival two years ago (and came away with the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize), is inspired by the actual events surrounding a Chinese student who travels to the United States in search of bright future in American science. However, his hopes are dashed when he's unable to navigate academic politics and, eventually, he loses his way. Dark Matter marks the feature film debut of renowned opera and theater director Chen Shi-Zheng, and it was written by Billy Shebar with a story by Shebar and Chen Shi-Zheng. I've heard some really good things about this film, and so we'll definitely be checking it out when Dark Matter hits theaters on April 11.

For more on Dark Matter, check out a Moviefone Unscripted segment featuring Aidan Quinn, Liu Ye and Chen Shi-Zheng.

Last January, Chen Shi-Zheng's Dark Matter premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. But that wasn't enough to get it a sweet deal, or any normal deal for that matter. It took a year, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, the film finally has a North American distributor in First Independent Pictures. Now the award-winner will get an April release, which will be followed by a DVD release, the details of which are currently being finalized.

The film, which stars Liu Ye, Aidan Quinn (who replaced Val Kilmer), and Meryl Streep, is based on a true story of a Chinese student in 1991 whose mental stability unravels when his hopes for scientific greatness are dashed due to his school's internal politics. Ye plays the student, Liu Xing, Quinn plays his cosmology professor who brings the international student onto his research team, and Streep plays Xing's other mentor, a patron of the university. The twist -- his mentally-unraveled state leads him to extreme violence.

If you're curious about the real story, and don't want to be surprised, you can google "Gang Lu" and get the details of his story. Of course, this film is only based on the events, so it's sure to have its own twists, turns, and Dark Matter. (Pun alert!) In the meantime, check out the trailer here.

The first official trailer for Mamma Mia! has been released online, in addition to an international trailer over at YahooUK. You can either watch the trailer above, or head on over to Moviefone to see it in glorious HD. Ah, that music. I'm sorry, but this little gem holds a special place in my heart. After seeing it a whopping four times on Broadway, my parents finally dragged my sister and I to see it one Mother's Day. Long story short; I've seen it twice now, and wouldn't mind seeing it again. But will all that magic translate to the big screen? I hope so. The trailer looks like a lot of fun; we have huge dance numbers, lots of singing and plenty of pretty blue ocean. Starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried and Christine Baranski, Mamma Mia! was written by Catherine Johnson and directed by Phyllida Lloyd (both of whom brought us the staged version). Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson serve as executive producers. Cinematical brought you the first official photos from the film yesterday; Mamma Mia! looks to entertain moviegoers (as Hairspray did last summer) when it arrives in theaters on July 18.