casMaybe just having your name mentioned in conjunction with a Quentin Tarantino movie is enough to get your career back in gear. Or maybe ol’ Axel Foley reads CHUD.com and knows that I have yearned for him to stop making movies for the diapers crowd. At any rate, Eddie Murphy has signed on to a real, serious film from a real, serious director: Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls.

Beyonce Knowles and Jamie Foxx have already joined the cast of the musical adaptation, which follows the career of the girl group The Dreamettes as they find fame and fortune. Eddie’s going to play James "Thunder" Early, a superstar who has The Dreamettes as his backing singers before their star starts rising.

Eddie, of course, is no stranger to the world of singing, as all two dozen people who bought his album Love’s Alright (including me! Hey, it seemed funny at the time) can attest. He’ll be returning to that piece of shit franchise Shrek next, with the third film being released in 2007.

By the way, I hope this goes well for Condon. His Kinsey is a really good movie that got shafted at the box office. He’s a nice guy and a damn fine writer and director – I just want to see him do well.