Through the winding trek of serendipity and tragedy life throws at us, Greg Tucker is on one of those rare lucky streaks.

In the next week and a half, his new restaurant, which will replace Lady Falconburgh’s on Main Avenue, is about to open in downtown Durango, and his Hollywood-produced feature-length motion picture, for which he wrote the screenplay, will pre-screen in Durango and Farmington.

“When I was told by Lionsgate we could pre-screen in Durango and Farmington in mid-March, I thought: That’s when we’re opening the bar in Durango. What an amazing coincidence,” Tucker said.

On March 17, he will hold a private pre-party for his film, “Gone Are the Days,” a low-budget Western set in 1903 Durango that was purchased by Lionsgate, a film company. The party will serve as a sort of soft opening for his new restaurant, The Cavern Bar and Grill, which will have a turn-of-the-century mining theme featuring a waterfall along the brick stairwell that numerous Durangoans have descended for a night of serious drinking.

He expects the pre-screenings on March 16 and 17 to sell out quickly, and the pre-party will be by invitation only.

“There’s a maximum amount of people we can get into the bar,” he said.

The movie will also be shown at Allen Theaters in Durango and Farmington from March 16 to March 22.

Tucker, who grew up in Farmington, served as the San Juan County district attorney from 2000 to 2004. He began work on the screenplay while he was an undergraduate student at Arizona State University. His creative writing professor convinced him to turn a novella he had submitted as a class paper into a screenplay. That professor, Mark Harris, wrote the screenplay for “Bang the Drum Slowly.”

The plan for The Cavern Bar and Grill came along more recently when he and friends were reminiscing about the glory days of Lady Falconburgh’s Barley Exchange.

“You’d go out for dinner, and then you made the bar runs, and it was always the first stop you made and the last stop you made,” Tucker said.

The plan was to open The Cavern Bar and Grill shortly after the pre-party, but Tucker said crews continue to work on the remodel.

Tucker will co-own the bar and grill with Christian Hatfield, Ken Stephens and several minority shareholders.

“It will be pretty spectacular and pretty different,” he said. “... We’ll completely remodel. The menu will be fantastic for lunch and dinner. Sunday brunch will be the best in town.”

Mark Cavilli, a chef with 20 years’ experience, will run the kitchen.

Tucker promised that The Lady Falconburgh’s Beer Club, familiar to ale lovers across the Four Corners, will remain with the famed wall in place.

“We still have every card. So, we can credit everyone for every beer they’ve drank,” he said.

The owners want The Cavern to be known for its selection of premium liquors and its “mixology,” but it will retain a minimum of 40 beers on tap. The menu and prices will vary, but Tucker promises it won’t be a run-of-the-mill pizza joint.

“It depends on what you order,” Tucker said. “We’ll have top-shelf bourbon and smoked pastrami, or you can order a burger and a Pabst Blue Ribbon. It’s going to serve everybody.”

The atmosphere will be different, too. “It will be an experience,” Tucker said.

Besides the waterfall, the bar will feature faux stalactites and stalagmites – giving the dining area an old mine feel.

Though Tucker’s restaurant won’t be a low-budget effort, his film is.

“It’s such an honor for Lionsgate to pick it up. We’re really thrilled by it,” said Tucker’s pal from Farmington, Mark Gould, who was four years ahead of Tucker at Farmington High School and who directed “Gone Are the Days.”

Gould’s firm, Directional Entertainment, handled film production.

The story is set in Durango at a ranch in La Plata County and in Hesperus, but the film was principally shot at The Paramount Ranch and The Big Sky Ranch, both movie-production sites in Southern California. Gould said he and Tucker preferred to film the movie locally, but it would have added $1 million to the film’s budget.

“I do want to apologize to all the people of Durango,” Gould said. “I would love to have the Rockies in the background, but we just couldn’t do it. ... If you’re from Durango, you know what Durango looks like, and to not have the San Juans in the background is so frustrating.”

Tucker said the landscapes of Southwest Colorado – with mountains, rivers and deserts – is ideal for film production.

“We’d like to encourage Durango to jump on the bandwagon and encourage more filmmakers to come here. But a lot of places offer tax credits as high as 33 percent, and that means a lot if you are on a low budget,” he said.

Donald Zuckerman, the state’s film commissioner, said there is no record the filmmakers contacted the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media to inquire about the state’s economic incentives for filmmakers.

Colorado offers out-of-state film production companies a 20 percent tax rebate credit to feature films and television shows that are filmed in Colorado.

The film must have a minimum budget of $1 million, and 50 percent of the workers on the production must be Coloradans. The minimum budget for Colorado-based film production companies to qualify for the credit is $100,000.

Even if filmed in California, the film aims for nostalgia.

“Westerns have turned into shoot ’em ups, bloodbaths, which is all right,” Gould said. “It has its audience, but we wanted to capture the feel of the old Westerns, a tale of redemption. The old Westerns told stories. It’s a lot about character. Our story is not the usual shoot ’em up kind of Western.”

The movie is Gould’s first time directing. He made a movie after film school “that’s so buried now” he declined to name it.

“Gone Are the Days” stars Lance Henriksen. The cast includes Tom Berenger, Meg Steedle and Danny Trejo.

Tucker described the movie as “a period piece set in 1903 Durango.”

“It’s about a guy who is near death and wants to make amends for the things he’s done in life, but he has followed a bad path, and he discovers making amends is much harder than he thought,” Tucker said.

The film is scheduled to premier in Beverly Hills, California, on March 23.

It’s scheduled to be released April 10 on DVD and video-on-demand, and will be in limited theaters in major markets.

parmijo@durangoherald.com