ALBANY — The phone was ringing off the hook on Wednesday when word spread that extras are needed for a movie that will be filmed aboard the USS Slater later this month.

The filmmakers are looking for people to play sailors in the movie entitled “Orion in Midsummer,” said Sharon Wolin, an independent,producer and director who is helping with casting.

The movie, described as an action-packed naval adventure, will be shot in Japan and the United States this summer and open in cinemas in spring 2009.

“We they have gotten quite a few calls and many messages were left and we are trying to return them,” said Wolin.

Background movie extras will get minimum pay and play sailors. At least 30 extras per day are needed and the film will be shot for nine days, from Aug. 17 to Aug. 29 aboard the USS Slater.

Filmmakers will hold an open casting call for background extras at 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9 at the Holiday Inn Express, 300 Broadway.

Filmmakers are seeking white men, ages 18 to 30, who wear a 14 to 15 shirt and have a waist size of 32 to 34 inches.

They can be no taller than 6’2” and must weigh between 145-190 pounds and have some flexible availability during filming, said Wolin.

The film is being made by the Tokyo-based production company Destiny Inc. and Marcom Visual Creation Inc. and some of it is being filmed on the USS Slater because the ship is the only Destroyer Escort afloat in the country.

During World War II, 563 destroyer escorts battled Nazi U-boats on the North Atlantic, protecting convoys of men and supplies. In the Pacific they stood in line to defend naval task forces from Japanese submarines and air attacks.

“Orion in Midsummer” takes place during the final days of World War II and features the struggle between the crews of Japanese submarines and American destroyers, where, within a moment’s notice, the hunter can become the hunted, according to Wolin.

Throughout the struggle, two men, a courageous Japanese submarine commander and an honorable American destroyer captain begin to understand each other, she said.

USS Slater Superintendent Tim Rizzuto could not be reached on Wednesday to comment.

According to the USS Slater Web site, the Japanese producer Shohei Kotaki gave representatives of the USS Slater a copy of the script a couple months ago to review and to help them understand his goal is to honor the veterans of both sides.

“His script was an honest, balanced and fair treatment of the waning days of the Pacific War, and an engagement between two veteran captains who were both war weary of seeing the needless loss of life, “ according to the Web site. “Not to allow them to do the film would in essence be holding a 60-year grudge, and we feel that, as a memorial, USS Slater must stand for more than that; that two nations who were once bitter enemies can come together as allies. We feel that any media effort by any nation to help tell the destroyer escort story is part of the mission of the Museum, and we must support that effort.”

The movie will star Hiroshi Tamaki as Japanese submarine Commander Kuramoto and David Winning as American destroyer Captain Stewart. At the close of the film, the commanders learn to respect each other and realize that even though they are fighting on opposite sides of a war, they are members of a larger brotherhood, said Wolin.

Moored on the Hudson River in Albany, the USS Slater has undergone an extensive 10-year restoration and most of the work has been done by volunteers.

The USS Slater will be closed to the public during filming.