Eddie Murphy has signed on for Bruce Beresford's Cook. The actor will star in the Driving Miss Daisy director's drama.

The film - to which Samuel L Jackson was previously attached - centers around a man (Murphy) hired by a dying father to look after his daughter and girlfriend, Digital Spy said.

"It's a great screenplay," producer Mark Canton told Empire. "It's a small story - a true story - of a family and a guy who comes into their lives.

"You have to come up with either really great big franchise driven movies or little character driven movies. Those are the two businesses to be in. I'm in both. You don't like to be caught in the middle."

Canton compared Cook to Jennifer Aniston's new drama Cake.

"Cake startled people because Jen gained a lot of weight and cut her hair and has a lot of scars and it's a serious drama," he said.

"Cook is another one. Everyone now wants to do what Matt McConaughey did, so we're financing these movies when we think they're put together the right way. This will be Eddie Murphy like you've never seen him. Of that I can assure you."

Cook will begin shooting in November.