Filming is set to start Monday on "The Reef," a direct-to-DVD action feature that will be set and filmed on O'ahu.

The film stars Chris Carmack and Laura Vandervoort as a couple with a local dive shop and David Anders as an unsavory bad guy who hires them for an underwater job, said Sara Berrisford, an executive producer on the project.

"It's a young couple living in Hawai'i," Berrisford said. "They have this little slice of paradise. Another couple comes to Hawai'i and hires them to look for what they think is an old Filipino sunken treasure. Then they discover it is something more sinister."

The film, directed by Stephen Herek, will be shot largely off the Leeward coast and several of the actors were certified as divers in order to complete the underwater filming, Berrisford said.

Filming is expected to last until the first week of June.

MGM and Brookwell McNamara Entertainment are producing "The Reef," which could be released a year from now.