Keys move north

A bar in the Florida Keys is the essence of laid back, a Tequila sunrise with a twist of torpor.

Except this bar is fictitious, the dock and restaurant at Bowen's Island reimagined and redressed as a tavern that Jimmy Buffet, in his early days, might have frequented. Today, with cast and crew of "Angel Camouflaged" having broken for lunch, it is a bustling scene.

Real-life rocker and leading lady Diland Robichaux, she of the rainbow dreadlocks and creative ink, is her self-described "hyper" self, eager to go into makeup and get the show on the road.

Veteran leading actor James Brolin, trying to look older than his age but failing, is the one fellow taking his ease, kicking back for a few thoughtful responses to an interviewer's queries.

Meanwhile, writer-director Michael Givens, of Beaufort, together with producers Kenneth Dalton and Aaron Steele-Nicholson seem to be everywhere at once, shepherding a production that commenced the middle of last week and already has filmed scenes at Boone Hall Plantation and the Sand Dollar at Folly Beach.

Robichaux stars as Scottie, a disillusioned singer who inherits a rundown bar and, with her brother Morgan (Warrick Grier), labors to revive the tavern with the aid of a crusty Keys denizen named Salt (Brolin) -- all while rekindling her own passion for music.

Apart from Brolin and Grier ("The Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior"), co-starring are Robichaux's sister rocker Joan Jett, Carlos Bernard (TV's "24") and Terry Serpico ("Army Wives").

As originally written, the Cinema Island Productions project was to have been done in the Keys, but thanks largely to the inducement of South Carolina tax incentives, the filmmakers decided to bring their independently financed, music-infused drama to Charleston.

Indeed, Dalton, with 30 years experience as a producer, views "Angels Camouflaged" as perhaps a "franchise in the making."

Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com or 937-5707.