David Scott Hay’s debut feature, the jet-black comedy “Hard Scrambled,” gets its first theatrical release in Beverly Hills . The film plays the Fine Arts Theatre now through Oct. 22.
Veteran actor Kurtwood Smith plays hard against type as a bitter thug in a performance that Kevin Thomas called “powerful” in the Los Angeles Times.
Smith (“That ?70s Show”) stars with Richard Edson (“Stranger than Paradise”), Alanna Ubach (“Meet the Fockers”) and Eyal Podell (“The Insider”) as denizens of a greasy spoon vying for power when the owner (Beth Grant, “Donnie Darko”) meets with a deep-fryer accident.
Hay said he expects a DVD release early next year.
Hay’s script, adapted from his own play, was the first winner of Creative Screenwriting Magazine’s New Visions Fellowship, a screenplay competition that guaranteed the top writer a production deal.
Creative Screenwriting’s Erik Bauer and James Mercurio produced the film, which shot in L.A. over 18 days in 2003 and 2004. It premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival and played the Garden State and Phoenix film festivals.
