“It has great characters, quirky and dark,” Mercurio said. “These are gritty, showy roles — and actors love to do great roles.”

Hay’s standout script follows the muddled fumblings of three likable losers whose sincere desire to destroy each other is hindered only by their stupidity and genuine love for one another.

“Hard Scrambled” marks Hay’s debut as a feature film director, as well as New Visions’ first production. The film stars Kurtwood Smith, a character actor best known for his roles as Red in “That ’70s Show” and Clarence Boddicker in “Robocop.” Smith portrays ex-con Benno, who works as the chief cook at Alice’s Diner, where plenty of twists and reversals unfolds.

“Kurtwood Smith is a highly respected character actor in Hollywood,” Mercurio said, explaining that the casting process followed Francis Ford Coppola’s “parade school of moviemaking.” (Coppola once said, “If I walk down Main Street carrying a flag, by the time I get to city hall, I’ll have a parade.”)

“That was what producing ‘Hard Scrambled’ was like,” Mercurio noted. “We had a script, we said we were going to make it and we moved forward and we gradually gained momentum. When Kurtwood said, ‘Yes,’ it really got the ball rolling.”

Rounding out the cast are Richard Edson (“Do the Right Thing” and original drummer for the post-punk band Sonic Youth), Eyal Podell (“The Insider,” “ER” and “The West Wing”), Beth Grant (“Matchstick Men,” “The Rookie,” “Donnie Darko” and “Rock Star”) and Alanna Ubach (“Meet the Fockers” and “Legally Blonde II”).

“I think that says a lot about David’s script,” Mercurio explained. “We’re basically doing this on a dime, using a few locations and we got people who will do it for 5 to 10 percent of their rate because it’s a great script. Their heads and hearts are in the right place.”

Hay added that the actors were “a dream to work with.”

“(They were) very supportive of me, the material and the project, under conditions that were less than ideal,” he said. “They came prepared to play every day.”

WRITE AND REWRITE

While Mercurio scrambled to raise money for the film, secure a location and make offers to actors, Hay worked through about 20 drafts of the screenplay — a process, he said, that was not that painful.

“I think the main plus was that it was a very polished piece,” Hay said. “I’d heard my stage play version out-loud dozens of times. I’ve seen two productions fully realized, so there’s a great advantage to being able to revise, sharpen and polish and nip and tuck and steal ideas from actors.

“So many screenwriters have never heard their scripts out-loud. Getting notes from someone just off the page is based only on theories,” he continued. “There’s a point when you have to get it on its feet and make it practical.”

Hay said he was able to adapt his play to film by dramatizing and bringing onto the screen characters and incidences that were only talked about on the stage.