The hunt is on for Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher has contracted with Lionsgate to star in the action comedy Five Killers, according to Variety. Aussie director Robert Luketic (21) will helm the film, which will begin production in early 2009.

Kutcher will play a retired hit man whose life is turned upside down because a mystery person from his past has paid a group of killers to take him out.

Lionsgate acquired the project as a spec script by Bob DeRosa (who wrote The Air I Breathe), and Ted Griffin (who wrote Ocean’s Eleven and Matchstick Men) is currently rewriting.