Ashton Kutcher To Portray Steve Jobs in Biopic

Ashton Kutcher is stepping to the plate to play one of modern technology's most impactful minds.

The "Two and a Half Men" star has signed on to play Apple CEO and mastermind Steve Jobs in the indie biopic "Jobs", according to a report by Variety and other outlets today.

Scripted by Matt Whitley, produced/financed by Five Star Institute's Mark Hulme and directed by "Swing Vote" helmer Joshua Michael Stern, "Jobs" sounds about like what anybody would expect: the story of Jobs rising from being a brilliant but somewhat directionless slacker to co-founder of an iconic tech firm that spawned a veritable brand-based cult of personality. Along the way prior to Jobs succumbing to cancer at age 56 last year, he became one of the few minds that could give longtime colleague and Microsoft icon Bill Gates serious competition for innovation.

Kutcher will begin shooting "Jobs" next month, during his "Two And A Half Men" hiatus. In the midst of his first season on the CBS hit, Kutcher is reportedly negotiating terms on a second season.

Kutcher likely won't be the only one to play Jobs in the very near future.

Reports had surfaced as recently as last November that former "ER" player Noah Wyle or fellow ex-TV doctor George Clooney could play Jobs in a biopic adapting Sony's biopic from the optioned Walter Isaacson biography Steve Jobs. For Wyle, it would've marked his second turn stepping into Jobs' shoes; he played him alongside Anthony Michael Hall's Bill Gates in TNT's 1999 feature "Pirates of Silicon Valley", which told the tale of how Gates, Jobs and Paul Allen rose through the ranks from building a computer in a garage to innovating technology that shaped how modern society functions.