NEWPORT-born film director Peter Greenaway is set to return to his home city in the autumn to stage an exhibition at the Riverfront.

In what will be a coup for the multi-million pound arts centre, Greenaway, who initially trained as a painter and has organised exhibitions around the world, is understood to be planning a show which draws on film and more traditional art forms.

Greenaway, who will celebrate his 63rd birthday next month and now lives in the Netherlands, has built a reputation as one of the world's most thought-provoking film-makers.

He tasted mainstream success with his first major feature film The Draughtsman's Contract in 1982 and has since directed a string of notable movies, including A Zed And Two Noughts (1985), The Belly Of An Architect (1987), Drowning By Numbers (1988), The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover (1989), Prospero's Books (1991), and The Pillow Book (1996), as well as less high profile, arthouse films.

He has been nominated four times for the Palme D'Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and has won several awards for his film work.

Newport city council agreed in principle to use the Riverfront's basement gallery for the exhibition, subject to further discussions with Greenaway and his agents on the implications of staging it

The basement currently houses a temporary exhibition - including an audio-visual presentation - charting the discovery and recovery of the medieval ship found in 2003 during work on the Riverfront.

This will have to be moved so the Greenaway exhibition can be housed there, probably for six-12 weeks and coinciding with the Cardiff Film Festival in November when Greenaway's next film project will be premiered.