His recent performances in Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty have been simply divine, but for his most heavenly role yet, John Travolta heads to Texas—his first time back since Urban Cowboy. In Michael, co-written and directed by Nora Ephron, Travolta plays a real live angel, while William Hurt and Andie McDowell are reporters who investigate his supposedly miraculous abilities. Filming begins in Round Rock and Granbury this month.

Two genial screen veterans join forces for All the Western Stars, a buddy movie about wannabe cowboys—Jack Lemmon (in only his second western) and James Garner—who escape from a rest home. The film wraps this month after shooting at many Texas sites, including the Alamo and Dealey Plaza.

Another western of sorts comes from an unlikely source: Austin auteur Richard Linklater. The creator of the modern-day romance Before Sunrise switches gears with the twenties-era The Newton Boys, based on the true experiences of a quartet of train- and bank-robbing brothers who took plenty of loot but never a life. Production begins in April in Austin; one star will likely be University of Texas graduate Matthew McConaughey, whose small role as the high school hanger-on in Linklater’s Dazed and Confused ignited his career.