ALTHOUGH Stephen Smith spent years living rough on the streets of Darlington, hooked on drugs and scavenging in bins for food, he will soon return to the town with a happier story.

The success of his autobiography, Addict, which has sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide, has attracted the attention of leading Hollywood film-makers, who plan to turn it into a major movie, but he refuses to forget his roots.

The film adaptation, also called Addict, will be set in the Firthmoor district of the town, and will be directed by Andy Serkis, who starred as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Members of the production crew, including Mr Serkis, plan to visit the town this month to recruit extras, with shooting expected to begin in the summer.

Speaking to The Northern Echo from Germany, Mr Smith, 52, said most of the filming would be in Darlington.

He said: "There are some very powerful scenes that will be shot there. I got on a train in London one day with no idea where I was going, and got off in Darlington. I remember the people being very friendly, and I've never forgotten that."

Mr Smith said it promised to be "a bit of a blockbuster".

"We have got some brilliant people on board. Andy Serkis read my book and felt passionate about my story," he said. "He has got an amazing eye for detail, and puts his heart and soul into everything.

"I insist on having input and making sure my story is told, so it shows how I became an addict, and how easy it is to fall into the same situation.

"It might be easy to make eating out of dustbins or drinking bottles of wine seem romantic, but I want to show that it's not, it is horrible. If making this film can make one young person say they will never do drugs, then it will be worthwhile."

From the stark east Durham coalfields to the lush greenery of the North York Moors, the North-East has been a magnet for film-makers for many years.

Until now, the closest Darlington has come to appearing on the big screen was an obscure film shot by the Children's Film Foundation in 1972. It was called Anoop and The Elephant and seems notable only as comic Jimmy Edwards' last starring role.

The town has been featured on television several times, most notably in two series of Harry, a drama starring Michael Elphick as a southern journalist starting afresh in the North-East.

It is also mentioned in the Morecambe and Wise film Night Train To Murder and The Likely Lads.

The Northern Echo itself features in several films, most notably Little Voice. It is also mentioned in Our Friends In The North and The Likely Lads.

Further afield, Get Carter remains one of the most famous movies to be shot in the North-East.

Bamburgh Castle, in Northumberland, was used for El Cid and Alnwick Castle, also in Northumberland, appears in the first two Harry Potter adventures, and the coal-blackened beaches of Dawdon doubled for an outer space landscape in Alien 3.

l To be considered for a role as an extra in Addict, write to the film's publicist, Giles Davis, at Westworld International Films, 157 Gloucester Avenue, London, NW1 8LA