New Orleans ? An impromptu meeting with the city’s police chief ended with a pledge by Dennis Quaid to return to the hurricane-ravaged city for his next movie.

There’s one catch, though: Police Supt. Eddie Compass wants a walk-on role.

“Get me in there, brother, even if it’s as an extra,” Compass told Quaid as the two offered hugs and posed for pictures at the police staging area at Harrah’s Casino on Tuesday.

Quaid had been set to begin filming “Shame on You” in New Orleans later this year, but Hurricane Katrina scuttled those plans.

Location crews had been scouting replacement sites in Shreveport and Baton Rouge, Quaid said.

After arriving on a relief mission late Monday, Quaid said he’s now determined to return to New Orleans to shoot the film, which he wrote and plans to direct.

“Can we get in here by Jan. 1?” he asked Compass. “If there’s any way we can do it here, I want to do it here. This is the place that really needs it.”

Quaid, 51, said he’s had a soft spot for the city since starring in the 1987 film “The Big Easy.”

“I’ve spent about a year of my life here between the four movies I’ve filmed,” he told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. “I can’t imagine how devastated people must feel.”