He’s one of those 27 percenters, an actor who makes movies better even when he just crops up for a couple of scenes. Now Tim Blake Nelson has nabbed two new acting gigs, playing Henry Bukowski in James Franco’s biopic of Charles Bukowski and a womanising type in Tommy Lee Jones’ next directorial outing, The Homesman.

Franco wrote the script and is directing Bukowski, another cinema adaptation of the life of the German-born American writer most famous for works such as Pulp, Factotum and Post Office. The film will chronicle his early years, as a shy young man frequently beaten by his father, who eventually defended himself and channelled the emotional trauma into his later works.

He’ll then work on The Homesman for Jones, who co-wrote that script with Kieran Fitzgerald and Wesley A. Oliver. He’ll be calling the shots for a story about a claim jumper (Jones himself) and a pioneer woman (Meryl Streep) who are tasked with transporting three women deemed crazy across the Western plains. Nelson is set to play a shady character who tries to steal one of their convoy.

With Hilary Swank also in the cast, The Homesman will shoot this spring in New Mexico.