SCARBOROUGH – Don’t be surprised if at some point during an upcoming weekend, you happen to see armed soldiers wading ashore at Pine Point Beach in Scarborough.

Yes, it is an invasion force, but no, you’re not in any danger. After all, if the vintage uniforms and antique rifles don’t give it away, the film crews surely will. The invasion, slated for March 22 weather depending, is being staged for television.

Just as surprising as the event, however, is its intended use. The small platoon of U.S. Army soldiers landing on Pine Point Beach will be simulating the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, that took place on June 6, 1944.

The production is being staged as part of a four-hour documentary made by Lone Wolf Media to honor the 70th anniversary of D-Day, to air on the History Channel this summer. Based in South Portland, Lone Wolf is an independent television production company founded in 1997 by award-winning filmmakers Kirk and Lisa Wolfinger.

Its recent projects include “North America Inside Out” for the Discovery Channel, “Ice Cold Gold” for Animal Planet and “Sex in the Stone Age” for the National Geographic Channel, in addition to more than 80 hours of programming prepared for the History Channel in the past 12 years.

“We are a film company they count on for big projects, and this is certainly a substantial one,” said Kirk Wolfinger last week.

“This is really quite fascinating, although I’m not sure how Pine Point Beach in March stands in for 1944 France,” said Town Manager Tom Hall, who signed off on permissions for use of the beach.

According to show runner Sharon Petzold – “show runner” being a television job title meaning, “person who does whatever needs to be done” – the Pine Point footage will be for close-ups of actors portraying the soldiers featured in the special, to be interspersed with archival footage of the battle and recent interviews with the participants themselves.

“We’re not trying to create something that didn’t happen,” said Petzold. “We are just trying to put pictures to specific stories these vets are telling us, that come direct from them.”

“You’ll hardly hear a narrator in this special, it’s almost entirely done through the guys who lived it,” said Wolfinger.

While the special will cover the entire breadth of the invasion, from the beach landings and paratrooper drops to the inland march to St. Lo, featuring first-hand accounts from both sides, one of the spotlight characters for the beach scenes is a Maine native Charles Shay, a Penobscot Indian now living in Old Town, who served as a PFC medic with Fox Company, 16th infantry, 1st Army Division.

With soldiers to interview and scenes to shoot all over the country, as well as in France, Lone Wolf began with Shay.

“As it turned out, he was one of the best interviews we did for the whole project,” said Wolfinger. “He’s fabulous and tells a great story.”

“Basically, he was there pulling soldiers out of the water trying to save them as they got mowed down coming off the landing craft,” said Petzold. “It’s really very moving. It’s amazing what some of these men can remember after all this time. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to tell their story, and they have amazing stories to share.”

“Really, this may be one of our last opportunities to hear directly from these gentlemen. That’s why we are so excited to not let this moment in our own history pass us by,” said Petzold.

The re-enactors, who will travel to Pine Point, are also filming scenes in Louisiana with help from the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, which is providing period uniforms and equipment.

“All of our props are authentic and are arriving with a historian to make sure we are accurate in every detail,” said Petzold.

Additionally, both Petzold and Wolfinger praised Lee Humiston, founder and curator of the Maine Military Museum on Peary Terrace in South Portland.

“He was amazingly helpful in so many ways,” said Wolfinger.

“One of the things I love best about this job is that every time I start a new project, I’m learning,” said Petzold. “Our last project was about geology. It’s just a joy to work with people like him [Humiston] who know absolutely every detail, details that are so specific. It’s a little bit daunting.”

“I feel a responsibility to these vets,” said Petzold. “I want to tell their story, as well as that of those who didn’t make it.”

Jerry Hatton, director of photography for South Portland-based Lone Wolf Media, is surrounded by German and American World War II re-enactors during a documentary filming shoot last month in Louisiana. The Lone Wolf crew will be in Scarborough re-enacting the D-Day invasion on Pine Point Beach later this month. An archival photo of soldiers about to charge the beaches of Normandy, France, June 6, 1944.