Jim Mercurio subscribes to the Francis Ford Coppola theory that art depends on luck and talent.

He also knows that some career moves are worth the gamble — even if they take place during a hand of poker.

In fact, a game of chance turned into the opportunity of a lifetime for the former Neshannock Township resident.

Mercurio, a Los Angeles-based producer and screenplay consultant, teamed up with industry peers and fellow poker players Dean Morini and Erik Bauer to form a new film company, New Visions Fellowship.

The impetus began during shop talk at their weekly card game.

“We were talking about the latest in digital technology and kind of lamenting why filmmakers don’t take advantage of it,” Mercurio, 38, said. “Then we thought, ‘We should be making low-budget movies with these technologies.’ ... And New Visions was born.”

By taking advantage of emerging digital technologies and their creative possibilities, the company can focus on “smart, character-driven screenplays” set in one or two locations that cost a fraction of the typical big-budget Hollywood movie.

“The company is called New Visions, but it’s old school,” Mercurio noted. “Basically, it’s a mom-and-pop venture of about 20 investors throwing in about twenty-five hundred bucks apiece. But once we got this script and saw the cut from the original 13-day shoot, we knew we were onto something much bigger. It begged to be taken seriously.”

TALENT SEARCH

Before any principal photography began on the film, the first order of business was to launch an international search for screenplays. That started in 2001.

“We were looking for new talent so that we can bring their visions to the screen,” noted Mercurio, who has been ranked fifth among the top 25 script consultants in the country.

Mercurio, along with childhood friend Morini, a screenwriter, and Bauer, who owns and publishes Creative Screenwriting magazine, sifted through about a hundred responses from seven different countries.

It was Chicago playwright David Scott Hay’s poignant script, “Hard Scrambled,” that caught their eye.

According to Mercurio, the script had it all: family, betrayal, love and loyalty.