HOLLYWOOD is beckoning for a North-East graphic artist as the release of Stephen Spielberg's screen adaptation of one of his works draws near.

Richard Piers Rayner was overjoyed when the movie legend's Dreamworks company bought up Road to Perdition, the Max Allan Collins story he had illustrated for DC Comics.

Now, after Oscar winners Tom Hanks and Paul Newman were signed up for major roles along with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law, filming has been completed and the release is expected as early as March.

Director Sam Mendez and cinematographer Conrad Hall Snr, who both worked on the blockbuster American Beauty, teamed up for the $80m Road to Perdition, in which 20th Century Fox bought half the distribution rights.

But the trailer release came too late for Teessider Richard to show as part of his wedding celebrations last month, when he married fiancee Bernadette at Swinton Park.

But the excitement is still high, and Richard, who is Middlesbrough Football Club's artist in residence, is planning to put on an exhibition of his artwork in Hollywood to coincide with the release.

"The filming is finished and it's coming out, I believe, in the spring," said Richard, 49.

The film is set in Chicago, Illinois, and Hanks plays Michael O'Sullivan, also known as the Angel of Death, a big-time hitman who goes in search of vengeance with his son when the rest of their family is murdered.

"We can't wait now," said Richard. "We are in a state of limbo, waiting for it to come out. We've got a few pictures to show that it's actually happening and we can't wait for the premiere, to which we are expecting our invites any day."

The prospect of attending such an event alongside the likes of Spielberg, the maker of ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the film's stars is a real source of excitement.

But Richard, from Crathorne, plays it down.

He said: "It's something else we will have to put ourselves through."

Richard was hired by comic publishers such as DC and Marvel after taking his own black and white graphic novel to a London firm for advice in the late 1980s.

Since then, he has illustrated legends such as Batman, Swamp Thing and Dr Who, while he often manages to blend famous North-East landmarks, including Middlesbrough's Transporter Bridge, into his scenes.