Vince Vaughn‘s Wild West Picture Show Productions has acquired the rights to Ridley Pearson‘s new novel The Risk Agent.  Per Deadline, the China-set thriller features the characters of Grace Chu, a female forensic accountant, and John Knox, a combat/culture specialist.  The duo must overcome their differences when they’re tasked with rescuing a Chinese National who goes missing on the streets of Shanghai.  The novel is billed as the first entry in a new series by Pearson, so Vaughn could be eyeing this as a potential franchise.  The story is a major departure for the actor, who has kept his leading roles to comedies ever since 2001′s Domestic Disturbance.  I personally think a change-up is long overdue for Vaughn, who has not only stuck to comedies, but also to his fast-talking, know-it-all character that has grown increasingly tiresome over the years (although it plays well off of Jonah Hill‘s character in The Watch, which opens this Friday).

Vaughn is next set to co-star with Owen Wilson in the Shawn Levy-directed comedy, The Internship.  We also reported last week that New Regency has picked up the pitch Gunslingers as a potential starring-vehicle for Vaughn.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of Pearson’s novel.

20th Century Fox is looking to schedule a Playdate.  The family-friendly pitch will be written by Tim Hill (Hop) and Dave Johnson, with Hill in line to direct.  Though the plot is being kept quiet at the moment, as Deadline reports, the title is fairly revealing.  The Alvin and the Chipmunks director has a long history of writing for children’s television series (Rocko’s Modern Life, SpongeBob SquarePants) and is set as the director for Dimenson Films’ remake of Short Circuit.

Fans of Peter Pan will want to hit the jump for information regarding the adaptation of the Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson novel series, Peter and the Starcatchers.