Runaway Train, Never Coming Back: Chris Pine’s first post–Star Trek role will be in Unstoppable, the latest Denzel Washington–Tony Scott action-flick team-up. He’ll play a young conductor who teams up with a vet, played by Denzel, to chase down a runaway train carrying toxic chemicals. Pine apparently was fielding a few other offers, but then remembered that he looks great in overalls. [HR]
Singing Doctor: In the Heights writer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda will do a guest run on House this upcoming season, playing House’s psych-hospital roommate in at least two episodes. Do we smell a musical dream sequence? That cane would come in handy! [EW]
Land of Love: Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Franco Nero have signed up for Letters to Juliet. Adapted from Lise and Ceil Friedman’s book, the plot revolves around a young couple (Seyfried and Bernal) who get caught up in the search of an older woman (Redgrave) for a former flame (Nero) while on a trip to Italy. Then they get bored and go pretend to be gladiators outside the Colosseum. [Variety]
Big September: Whitney Houston will also be returning in September — her latest, as-yet-untitled release, will be out the first of the month. Will.i.am, Sean Garrett, and Akon will contribute to the album, and select tracks will be previewed on whitneyhouston.com in the next few weeks. [Billboard]
Fox: Ruining Lives: Fox’s proud tradition of insane dating shows will continue with I Married a Stranger, in which in every episode, a woman looking for love will meet the man she has been picked to marry only at the altar. The woman’s friends and family will pick from a group of six selected by the producers; the two finalists will walk down the aisle together, but only one will actually make it all the way down. We have to admit, that last quirk sounds totally hilarious. [HR]
Scammed: Just a tad more exciting than the Whitney news: Big Star, the influential seventies power-pop act, will release the box set Keep an Eye on the Sky on September 15. The four-disc set will include 98 tracks worth of demos, alternate takes, covers, rarities, live versions, unreleased material, songs from pre–Big Star bands Rock City and Icewater, and solo work from co–front-men Alex Chilton and