Vince Vaughn is ditching comedy to enter the wholly depressing world of Sean Penn. He’s just been cast along with The 40 Year-Old Virgin’s Catherine Keener in the Penn written directed movie Into the Wild according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Since it’s directed by Penn it is of course a heavy drama. Sean doesn’t do funny anymore. His screenplay for Into the Wild is based on a book by Jon Krakauer which tells the true story of a young man named Christopher McCandless who after graduating from college in 1992 abandons everything he owns and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness and embrace nature. Four months later he was found dead in an abandoned bus at a remote campsite. At least he wasn’t taken out Treadwell style. Nobody wants to end up in the belly of a bear.

Girl Next Door star Emile Hirsch will take on the role of McCandless, with Vaughn and Keener playing more minor roles. Keener plays a woman who picks him up off the road and takes him in, and Vince plays a tow-truck driver McCandless meets during his journey.

Unless you count a paranoid 9/11 conspiracy theory and a few Bruce Springsteen videos, this is Penn’s first attempt at directing since 2001 when he made The Pledge.