Ashton Kutcher Fighting Off ‘Five Killers’ For Action Comedy

Finally, Ashton Kutcher is getting his chance to play shoot-em-up with the big boys! Variety reports that Kutcher is set to star in “Five Killers,” an action-comedy from Lionsgate that will start filming early next year.

He’ll play a former hit man whose life is turned upside down because someone from his dark and nasty past has paid a group of killers to bump him off. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone is going to be jumping out and shouting “You’ve just been Punk’d!” just as things are getting really bad.

The movie will be directed by Robert Luketic, who made a surprising splash at the box office this year with “21.” He’s fresh off “The Ugly Truth,” the romantic-comedy starring Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl. I think he should lean on that connection to action-man Gerard Butler, and see if he can’t get him to play the man who would kill Kutcher. Every movie can use a former Guy Ritchie gangster, right?

Kutcher seems long overdue for an action-comedy — he’s been stuck in the romantic side of the movie pool for far too long. I thought he might be set for a new, action-oriented career path after “The Guardian,” and maybe he’s finally making a run for it.

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