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

What did I not expect to read today? "Keira Knightley is releasing an album." This surprising tidbit comes from The New Zealand Herald. Now, it sounds more like she'll be featured on the soundtrack for The Edge of Love, since the article goes on to describe the other artists featured on the soundtrack, and makes no mention of any non-movie Keira songs. However, they do say that she's the one releasing it, so who knows!? Whatever the case, the woman who once said she couldn't really sing is going to find her music on disc.

Meanwhile, Cinematical isn't the only blog at Sundance, and the folks at Cinema Blend nabbed some new Helen Hunt news during a press conference for her directorial debut, Then She Found Me. She has already written another movie, which she says is an "original idea" this time around (the other is based on a novel). The script isn't completely finished, but she said: "It's similar in tone in that it's a comedy about some things that are funny and some things that are not funny." Gee, that's specific.

Finally, this last bit surprised me so much that I had to read through my recent Samantha Morton posts to see if I was completely blind and missed something. Guardian reports that the actress had a secret stroke two years ago and was close to death. They say "friends, family and managers made a concerted effort to protect her from publicity." That's putting it mildly! Some people say they can't keep out of the spotlight, but maybe they're doing something wrong because Morton kept a serious injury and her long rehab (she had to re-learn how to walk) away from us all. This is the real reason behind her pulling out of Transsiberian. Man, I thought she was tough before... Check out the article for the whole story.

The complete line-up for the second edition of the AFI Dallas International Film Festival has been announced, and beyond the galas and the glitter, the programming team has assembled an intriguing schedule. Robert Wilonsky of Unfair Park was the first to post the news and highlighted several of his recommendations.

First, though, the stars: Helen Hunt will appear in support of her directorial debut Then She Found Me, which will serve as the Opening Night Gala on March 27, and Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson will walk the red carpet for the closing night presentation, Battle in Seattle. Sometime in between, Robert De Niro and Barry Levinson will come out hustling for their latest, What Just Happened? Special awards will be given to Hunt, Theron, Jack Lemmon (in care of the late actor's widow, Felicia Farr), Mickey Rooney (?!), and Todd Wagner.

AFI Dallas established itself on the local social calendar last year as a premium civic-boosting event. That's good for the city, but as a film buff, I'm glad to see more international films in the narrative competition, more docs, an expanded and ace-looking section devoted to music docs ("Deep Ellum Sounds"), an entirely recommended six-film "Mavericks" section (featuring the French Chrysalis and the Japanese Vexille), and a ton of shorts. There's a fair share of titles that are dragging around lukewarm notices (see What Just Happaned? above), but I'm glad that local audiences will have a chance to decide for themselves. Cinematical will be covering the festival, which begins on March 27 and runs through April 6.

SXSW is coming up soon, and they have a great series of "Conversation" sessions lined up, including media mogul/billionaire Mark Cuban interviewing Disney mogul Michael Eisner on Tuesday, March 11. Cool! Also lined up for Conversations: uber-film journalist Elvis Mitchell will moderate the "Conversation with Billy Bob Thornton" (that one should be interesting) and for all you music fans, BMI's Doreen Ringer-Ross will moderate the "Conversation with Moby," both of these will also be March 11.

A couple days earlier, on March 9, they'll have Ain't It Cool News Head Honcho Harry Knowles moderating the "Conversation with Harlan Ellison," and AP reporter Christy Lemire moderating the "Conversation with Helen Hunt." That's a whole lot of "conversation-ing" -- if you're heading down to SXSW, you'll want to make sure to get filled up on some yummy Austin BBQ to sustain yourself. Kudos to the SXSW staff for lining up a great fest this year.

A couple of weeks ago, SXSW released info on a handful of films that would be screening at the film festival this March, including the opening-night film, 21. Today, the Austin-based festival let a few more titles slip, including one well-known comedy: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. That might not sound like your typical festival fare, but it'll provide a nice balance with documentaries and low-budget indie dramas.

Although the full SXSW lineup won't be released until Feb. 5, the fest also released details on five other movies that will be screened: Battle in Seattle, a feature about the 1999 WTO demonstrations in Seattle that is actor Stuart Townsend's directorial debut; Mister Lonely, Harmony Korine's movie about a Michael Jackson look-alike meeting a Marilyn Monroe look-alike; The Promotion, a comedy about rival supermarket managers that stars John C. Reilly and Seann William Scott; Crawford, a documentary about how the Texas town has been affected by George W. Bush's home there; and a live-action/animation feature called The Toe Tactic.

Finally, more speakers were announced for a series of "Conversations" panels (the kind where it's generally one famous person and a moderator): Helen Hunt, Michael Eisner, and Harlan Ellison. No word yet on whether any of the Harold and Kumar filmmakers or crew will be at SXSW this March, although writer-directors Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz were at Austin Film Festival last fall to talk about their experiences writing both films.

Battle in Seattle has nothing to do with the Rumble in the Jungle or the Thrilla in Manila. It's also not connected to the fictional "siege of Seattle" mentioned in Children of Men. No, Battle in Seattle refers to the real-life riots that occurred in 1999 when protesters sought to stop a meeting of the World Trade Organization. Irish actor Stuart Townsend wrote and directed a dramatization of the events, it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival -- and now Variety reports that ThinkFilm has bought the film for a cool $2 million.

Battle in Seattle stars Charlize Theron (Townsend's girlfriend), Woody Harrelson, and Ray Liotta, among quite a few others, and takes a documentary-style approach, with multiple points of view from multiple characters. We've been following the film for some time: Here are some details from a year ago; here's more casting and plot details.

ThinkFilm proved to be the big spender of this year's TIFF. I told you a few days ago about the distributor's acquisition of Helen Hunt's Then She Found Me for somewhere between $2.5 million and $3 million. Coincidentally, both films are the directorial debuts of well-known actors. Will Hunt or Townsend turn out to be the next Clint Eastwood or Robert Redford? Time will tell.

The directing debut of Helen Hunt gets a passing grade, barely -- the story she's telling is as old as the hills, but Then She Found Me is still executed with style. Sometimes charming, occasionally funny, it never draws attention to itself as the work of a director with training wheels on. The film follows the journey of April Epner (Helen Hunt) a 39 year-old woman who is inexplicably marrying a man named Ben (Matthew Broderick) who is so inconsiderate and self-absorbed that no woman could find him to be primo marriage material. Just as they begin to realize their mistake, April gets the shock of a lifetime: her birth mother shows up and informs her that her real father was Steve McQueen. I kind of liked that premise and hoped the movie would go with it, but it turns out to be just a gag. April's mother, played well by Bette Midler, has a couple of screws loose. More to the point, she has a couple of screws loose when it's convenient, and provides sage and sound advice at other times.

Colin Firth co-stars as April's love interest, an emotionally volatile man with a kid who happens to be in the same school where April teaches, which leads to the kind of scene where the teacher is red-faced by having the kid notice that she is having a 'sleep over' with the father. Firth's character, Frank, tries hard to start up a relationship with April and aggressively pushes her onto his kids, but naturally he isn't very understanding of the fact that she's still seeing her almost-husband on the side, here and there. Usually, a romantic comedy of this type would set up the love triangle but make it more or less clear from the start who is going to win out and who isn't, so Then She Found Me deserves some credit for going a more complicated route and portraying all of these characters as seriously flawed. Frank, for instance, is prone to yelling and storming around in an absolute rage, which is never a good sign. Ben is worse, having nothing whatsoever going on in his life.

We've already told you about the first couple of deals to come out of the Toronto International Film Festival, but here's the first one with enough money changing hands for the trade publications to cite the figures.

ThinkFilm has bought U.S. rights to Then She Found Me, starring Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick, with Equinoxe Films taking Canadian rights. The total price tag, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is between $2.5 and $3 million.

Hunt directed the romantic comedy-drama, her first time in that capacity except for a few Mad About You episodes. Based on a novel by Elinor Lipman, Then She Found Me is about a woman (Hunt) who is contacted by her birth mother (Midler) just as her adoptive mother has died, her husband (Broderick) has left her, and she's met a new man (Firth).

After Mad About You ended in 1999, Hunt did a quick series of movies -- four in 2000 alone -- before taking a break. Since then, she's appeared only in Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), A Good Woman (2004), HBO movie Empire Falls (2005), and last year's Bobby. And it's too bad, because I really like her. I mean, who doesn't? Who doesn't like Helen Hunt?!

For that matter, we haven't seen much of Bette Midler in movies lately, either. Apart from The Stepford Wives in 2004, she hasn't been on film since 2000. That, I'm not complaining so much about.

Anyway, of course we'll keep you posted on release dates and other news as it becomes available.

Though it's taken forever to get off the ground, Helen Hunt is finally gearing up for production on her directorial debut, Then She Found Me. Pic, which is just about to start shooting in Brooklyn, New York has added Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick and Bette Midler to its cast. Not bad for her first feature, huh?

Based on the novel by Elinor Lipman, Hunt has been working on adapting the script (a role she took on herself) for the past eight years. In the film, Hunt will play a schoolteacher whose birth mother (Midler) pops into her life at the worst possible time. Broderick will play Hunt's husband, while Firth takes on the role of a man she meets through one of her students.

Personally, I'm not keen on first-time directors placing themselves in their film as a main character. Often, I find it takes something away from the role and, with so much going on behind the scenes, the flick might suffer. However, in this case, Hunt has been working on the damn thing for so long, I imagine she has every detail memorized by heart. Here's to wishing her good luck.