Charlie Sheen and Ashton Kutcher
Actors Charlie Sheen (L) and Ashton Kutcher are seen in this combination file photograph created May 12, 2011. Kutcher was reported on Thursday to have signed a deal to replace Charlie Sheen in a revamped version of top-rated U.S. television comedy "Two and A Half Men." Deadline Hollywood said Kutcher, 33, the husband of actress Demi Moore, had signed a deal to join the cast of the CBS show when it returns for a ninth season. Sheen was fired in March from his starring role as a womanizing bachelor after weeks of erratic behavior and for publicly insulting the producers REUTERS

Charlie Sheen's "Two and A Half Men" character will not only be killed off, he will be given a funeral when the TV series returns in September, according to entertainment industry Web site Deadline Hollywood.

The screen demise of Sheen -- whose role on the TV comedy made him the highest-paid actor in Hollywood -- follows his firing from the show after a vicious public spat earlier this year with "Two and A Half Men" co-creator and producer Chuck Lorre.

Now Lorre appears set to exact revenge when the comedy returns with new star Ashton Kutcher in what Deadline Hollywood said is a secrecy-shrouded two-part season premiere that will be filmed later this week.

Broadcaster CBS and program makers Warner Bros. Television declined to comment on the report.

Sheen's womanizing bachelor character Charlie Harper -- said to be a close version of himself -- helped to make "Two and A Half Men" the most-watched comedy on U.S. television.

But Deadline Hollywood said Harper would die and his Malibu beachfront house would be put up for sale in a two-part season opener, allowing Kutcher's character to be introduced as a potential buyer.

Sheen was fired from the show in March after insulting Lorre in a bizarre series of interviews that followed months of drug and drink-fueled partying and repeated spells in rehab.

Kutcher, the creator of TV series "Punk'd" and the husband of actress Demi Moore, was hired in May as a new character on the series.

Sheen has since signed a deal for a new TV series called "Anger Management," but the show has not yet been picked up by any U.S. television networks.

Hollywood Hollywood Management TV