News
"Lookin' to Get Out" has star-studded Archive screening
Director's cut of Hal Ashby's comedy features cast members at spirited Q&A
Posted on Jul 6th, 2009 in Announcement
The UCLA Film & Television Archive’s recent special screening of the newly discovered director’s cut of “Lookin’ to Get Out,” the late director Hal Ashby’s classic 1982 comedy, drew an overflow crowd and an impressive array of filmmaking talent to the Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood.
Jon Voigt and Burt Young play two inveterate gamblers in the film, making one last grab for the good life in Las Vegas after a series of setbacks.
A spirited Q&A following the screening, moderated by writer-director (and School Executive Board Member) Curtis Hanson (“L.A. Confidential”), attracted the film’s top stars, Best Actor Oscar-winner Voight (for Ashby's “Coming Home”), Young and Ann-Margret.
The performers were joined on stage by co-screenwriter Al Schwartz, Ashby biographer Nick Dawson and Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler (for Ashby’s “Bound for Glory”). Wexler was awarded the UCLA Medal for 2009 at the School’s commencement exercises in June.
Also in attendance were featured players Richard Bradford, Jude Farese and Allen Keller; and Ashby’s daughter Leigh MacManus.
PHOTO: At the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening of “Lookin’ to Get Out” (1982, Hal Ashby) at UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood: screenwriter-director Curtis Hanson (panel moderator, School Executive Board Member and Honorary Chairman, UCLA Film & Television Archive); actors Ann-Margret, Jon Voight and Burt Young; and cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Not pictured: screenwriter Al Schwartz, author Nick Dawson (“Being Hal Ashby”).
Photo credit: Todd Cheney, UCLA Photography.